Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): The Auto Dial Firefox extension automatically places shortcuts to your most frequently visited web sites inside all of your new, empty tabs. Mozilla Labs recently suggested that empty tabs could be put to better use by offering no-cost options for the user (i.e., if what you want isn't what's offered, it doesn't hurt anything). Although not as inspired as the undeveloped concept at Mozilla Labs, Auto Dial fits perfectly with this idea. If you want more control over the content built in to new tabs, check out the previously mentioned Speed Dial extension. Auto Dial is free, works wherever Firefox does.

A post at the official Google blog by search VP Marissa Mayer discusses how one of the main criteria when designing its memorably minimal home page is keeping track of the number of words on the page. When Google recently decided to introduce a link to its privacy policy, company executives decided that another word would have to be removed to ensure the bare bones design aesthetic wasn't disrupted:

Larry and Sergey told me we could only add this to the homepage if we took a word away - keeping the "weight" of the homepage unchanged at 28. Given that the new Privacy link fit best with legal disclaimers on the page, I looked to the copyright line. There, we dropped the word "Google" (realizing it was implied, obviously) and added the new privacy link alongside it.

Opera 9.5, the latest edition of the free (and pretty speedy) web browser, doesn't make it readily apparent how to set its multi-page Speed Dial function as your start page. The How-To Geek points out that by setting your "Startup" to "Blank Page" in Tools->Preferences, and then heading to Advanced->Tabs->Additional tab options to un-check "Allow window with no tabs," you're good to go. This somewhat disables auto-starting with your last session's tabs, but for Speed Dial fans, it's a handy hack. While you're tweaking Opera, try adding more sites to Speed Dial. Update: A watchful Mac/Opera user notes that the trick appears Windows only—any Mac users out there know which settings to tweak?

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Whether you use it to keep up to date on the latest news or as a launching point for the rest of your browsing, you want to find a solid start page to fit your surfing habits. Earlier this week, we asked to share your favourite start page, and at over 350 comments later, we're rounding up the five most popular answers. Hit the jump for an overview of each.

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Want to mix up your browser-opening experience by rotating your home page? WhatPage.org, a free service with seemingly no ads or restrictions, lets you paste any site into a list that can hold more than 100, and provides a custom URL to set your home page to. Open your browser and hit home, and one of your pages opens. You control the numbered rotation of the pages, and can re-order at any time. As the site points out, it can also turn your home button into a favourite site click-browser. It's a great free service, but let's guess that our readers have their own solutions for rotating a home page—so let's hear them in the comments. Thanks Mike!

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Lifehacker reader and TiddlyWiki enthusiast Fraser has written up a guide that takes the idea of cut-and-paste Outlook Today customising to the next logical (or at least Lifehacker-friendly) conclusion—integrating a TiddlyWiki to-do list and notebook into Outlook. Combine the easy-to-edit power of a personal wiki with the at-a-glance inbox and task information from Outlook, and you've got a powerful start page indeed. For a primer on getting things done with a TiddlyWiki, check out guest-poster Jason Thomas' GTDTiddlyWiki walkthrough. (Original Outlook Today post).

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Your plain vanilla "Outlook Today" screen could be doing a whole lot more for you, especially if you aren't afraid of a little HTML or can get handy with a free page creator. Even if hand-coding's not your thing, the Tech-Recipes blog offers the big blocks of dense code that let you put your inbox, calendar, tasks, and whatever else anywhere you want on a page, leaving room for other stuff you might find useful. Feel free to mess around to your heart's content, because it's also un-doable with less than two clicks.

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Google doesn't offer a drag-and-drop method of reordering the tabs on your personalised iGoogle page, but you can manually move the tabs using an XML backup tool provided on the settings page. The basic trick should be pretty simple to anyone who's edited web code before, but Google Blogoscoped has a thorough explanation of what you're looking for and what to move. It's also worth a spin just to grab a copy of your iGoogle XML data, which you can restore at any time if that new experimental gadget takes over your whole page (which has been known to happen on occasion).

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The Google Operating System points out an overlooked but seriously worthy iGoogle gadget that can display entire up-to-date web pages inside a tab on Google's start page service. You might have seen this trick deep inside our Show Us Your iGoogle gallery, but it deserves its own spotlight here. You'll want to create a new tab for each web page you want to embed, and make sure that tab is selected before clicking the "Add to Google" link on creator Michael Bolin's page. Best of all, dynamic web apps seem to work fine inside the tabs, giving you access to Gmail, Google Reader, Remember the Milk, or any other of your favourites, right from your point of browser entry. Got your own embedded page timesavers on your start page, Google or otherwise? Share your sites in the comments.

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As seen in our iGoogle show and tell in June, personalised Google start pages can be both useful and highly customised. The folks at Google have opened the door to far more customisation and choice with the launch of an iGoogle Themes directory, as well as a guide for designing your own theme. A few new themes are already present in the directory, but many more are likely just around the corner. Those unsatisfied with the picks so far can always check out the iGoogle Skins gadget for a little DIY theming.

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