From Wendy Boswell,
Your Guide to Web Search.
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One very easy way to organize your favorite email client, keep up with personalized news, collect favorites, etc., is to set your home page to your favorite site that does all this; and the most popular one by far is My Yahoo, a search portal that is extremely customizable.

What is a search portal, exactly? Basically, it's just a "doorway" site from where you can jump off to the rest of the Web. You can set up any site that you like to be your own customized start page; just make sure that it's a site you don't mind seeing every time you log on to the Internet.

Set Your Home Page Using Internet Explorer

If you're using Internet Explorer, all you need to do to set your start page is:

• Click on Tools, then Internet Options.
• At the top of the pop-up window will be a section named Home Page. The Web address where you are at will show up in the address window.
• If you want to set the current page to be your start page, click on the Use Current button.
• Ta da! All set. If you want to change it later, just go through the above steps.

Set Your Home Page With Firefox

Firefox is just as easy to set your home page as Internet Explorer. All you need to do is:

• Click on Tools, then Options.
• Click on the General tab.
• At the top of the General window, you'll see a section that says Home Page and Location.. If you're already at the page you'd like to set as your home page, than all you need to do is click on Use Current Page.
• You're all set. If you want to change it, just go through the above steps again with a different page.

Customize Your Own My Yahoo Home Page

I've also set up a sample account at Yahoo for you to investigate a way you can really personalize your home page. Follow these steps to see what I did, and then customize your very own My Yahoo home page:

1. Go to Yahoo
   
   
2. Click on “My Yahoo”.
   
   
3. For Yahoo ID, type in wbsearch. For Yahoo Password type newssearch.
   
   
4. After logging in, you’ll see how I customized this particular page. You can do the same thing. However, don’t save your changes-let others play around, too.
   
   
5. Click “sign out” and if you want, you can go to Yahoo (see step 1) and make your own personal My Yahoo home page.

I've had my home page set up on Yahoo! for as long as I can remember, and it's become second nature now for me to check my email, get movie times, read the latest news, or click on my selection of most used bookmarks that I have conveniently located on this page. Once you learn how to do this, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

And don't forget; your home page can be ANY page on the Web. Your choices are unlimited. I know a lot of people enjoy having the news, such as Topix, open up as their first page of the day. It's all up to you.