My life just wasn’t work living before the internet.  I had to carry address and date books, buy and read five different newspapers, and put effort into keeping my files organizes.  The internet has removed all the work out of life because when it’s digital, it’s not real.  This series of posts will go over how the internet power user can use the internet to its fullest for work, play, and live geekier looking at perfecting your desktop, news aggregators, social networks, and more.  I will explain various options while highlighting what I do (since it’s the best, obviously).

This week, I’ll begin where it all starts - your homepage.  Personalized homepages allow you control over the information you begin your surfing with, conveniently accessible by the home button while specialized websites focus your attention, whether its email, news, or other.

Several websites like Pageflakes, Netvibes, yourminis, MySurfPad, My Yahoo, and iGoogle (to name very few) offer a smorgasbord of widgets from RSS feeds to email accounts to weather, movies, to-do lists, calendars, and more.  I often use the browser home button to reset myself, whether it’s hiding stuff I shouldn’t be looking at at work, or just to figure out what to do next.

The myriad of widgets personalized homepages offer is intimidating and often fights between rational and fun options - you only have so much space on the screen.

I use iGoogle for the main reason that it offers the most useful widgets (called gadgets).  I can have my old Yahoo! Mail along with my Remember the Milk to-do list (I use Remember the Milk because I want mobile access to my to-do list).  iGoogle also shockingly works with Google Calendar and Google Reader, providing quick glances as recent updates/info.  I also switch up two news services just to keep up-to-date with general information.  I round out the page with an excellent Bookmark gadget where I include important links I frequently check.

I don’t keep Gmail on the page because I have several email accounts organized with the Firefox Gmail Manager.

Also, Greasemonkey has a script to hide the header (I use the browser search box, easily accessible with Ctrl-K) giving you more space.

I will say I do not care for iGoogle’s visuals.  I preferred Pageflakes (which allowed 4-columns rather than iGoogle’s 3) but lacked Google Reader or Remember the Milk widgets as well as kept asking me to create a personalized page of my interests.

Other websites to consider are PageOnce, an excellent new webapp that logs into all your accounts at once (assuming you feel comfortable giving out all the information); FriendFeed (friend me) to get constant updates on your entire social network; or favorite email/news provider.  With Gmail you can include news and Google Reader all in one.

The key is to make the personal homepage just that - personal.  This isn’t the page you’ll be showing off to friends as look-what-I-made.  It’s the place for your most important and immediate information since it’s likely the page you already spend the most time on.

Next week, news aggregators and how to not go insane…