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Homepage

Overview
The homepage (often written as home page) is the URL
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a Uniform Resource Locator is a subset of the Uniform Resource Identifier that specifies where an identified resource is available and the mechanism for retrieving it. In popular usage and in many technical documents and verbal discussions it is often incorrectly used as a synonym...

 or local file that automatically loads when a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

 starts or when the browser's "home" button is pressed. One can turn this feature off and on, as well as specify a URL for the page to be loaded.

The term is also used to refer to the front page
Front Page
A front page is the first page of a newspaper or other publication lacking a front cover, typically the place where the most important content is placed, hence the metaphorical connotations of the term.Front Page can also refer to:...

, webserver directory index
Webserver directory index
When an HTTP client requests a URL that points to a directory structure instead of an actual Web page within the directory, the Web server will generally serve a general page, which is often referred to as a main or "index" page....

, or main web page
Web page
A webpage or web page is a document or resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a computer screen....

 of a website of a group, company, organization, or individual. In some countries, such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea, and formerly in the US, the term "homepage" commonly refers to a complete website (of a company or other organization) rather than to a single web page.
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Encyclopedia
The homepage (often written as home page) is the URL
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a Uniform Resource Locator is a subset of the Uniform Resource Identifier that specifies where an identified resource is available and the mechanism for retrieving it. In popular usage and in many technical documents and verbal discussions it is often incorrectly used as a synonym...

 or local file that automatically loads when a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

 starts or when the browser's "home" button is pressed. One can turn this feature off and on, as well as specify a URL for the page to be loaded.

The term is also used to refer to the front page
Front Page
A front page is the first page of a newspaper or other publication lacking a front cover, typically the place where the most important content is placed, hence the metaphorical connotations of the term.Front Page can also refer to:...

, webserver directory index
Webserver directory index
When an HTTP client requests a URL that points to a directory structure instead of an actual Web page within the directory, the Web server will generally serve a general page, which is often referred to as a main or "index" page....

, or main web page
Web page
A webpage or web page is a document or resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a computer screen....

 of a website of a group, company, organization, or individual. In some countries, such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea, and formerly in the US, the term "homepage" commonly refers to a complete website (of a company or other organization) rather than to a single web page. By the late 1990s this usage had died out in the US, replaced by the more comprehensive term "web site".

In the same category of homepage are now websites that attempt to be a start page (more accurately a personal web portal
Web portal
A web portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. Apart from the standard search engine feature, web portals offer other services such as e-mail, news, stock prices, information, databases and entertainment...

). A start page is a website or page meant to organize links or information for the user when a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

 starts. Start pages generally consist of information like news, weather, games, and other web widgets and web gadgets. Start pages also aggregate information like RSS
RSS
RSS is a three-letter abbreviation that can stand for a wide variety of terms:-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:...

 feeds or collect and manage web page links. Examples of Start pages include iGoogle
IGoogle
iGoogle , a service of Google, is a customizable AJAX-based startpage or personal web portal . Google originally launched the service in May 2005...

, Netvibes
Netvibes
Netvibes is a multi-lingual Ajax-based personalized start page or personal web portal much like Pageflakes, My Yahoo!, Alot.com, iGoogle, and Microsoft Live. It is organized into tabs, with each tab containing user-defined modules...

, Sthrt
Sthrt
stHrt is an Ajax-based start page or personal web portal similar to Netvibes, My Yahoo!, iGoogle, and Microsoft Live. The site is organized into homepages, each homepage containing user-selected websites. It has a website database from user contributions of over 10,000 sites...

, Pageflakes
Pageflakes
Pageflakes is an Ajax-based startpage or personal web portal similar to Netvibes, My Yahoo!, iGoogle, and Microsoft Live. The site is organized into tabs, each tab containing user-selected modules called Flakes...

, and icon based home page poggogum.

See also

  • Index.html
  • Personal web page
    Personal web page
    Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature. The content can be about that person or about something he or she is interested in...

    , a web page featuring an individual user