A home page or index page has various related meanings to do with websites. It can be used to refer to:
- When the user first opens their web browser, it automatically brings you to this page, which is also sometimes called the start page.
- It most often refers to the initial or main web page of a web site, sometimes called the "front page" (by analogy with newspapers).
- The web page or local file that automatically loads when a web browser starts or when the browser's "home" button is pressed; this is also called a "home page". The user can specify the URL of the page to be loaded, or alternatively choose e.g. to re-load the most recent web page browsed.
- A personal web page, for example at a web hosting service or a university web site, that typically is stored in the home directory of the user.
- In the 1990s the term was also used to refer to a whole web site, particularly a personal web site (perhaps because simple web sites often consisted of just one web page).
A home page can also be used outside the context of web sites, such as to refer to the principal screen of a user interface, which is also referred to as a home screen on mobile devices such as cell phones. URL are one way to track down websites like Google and Yahoo! which are set as "common Homepages"
Famous quotes containing the words home and/or page:
“For it’s home, dearie, home—it’s home I want to be.
Our topsails are hoisted, and we’ll away to sea.
O, the oak and the ash and the bonnie birken tree
They’re all growing green in the old countrie.”
—William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)
“I asked myself, “Is it going to prevent me from getting out of here? Is there a risk of death attached to it? Is it permanently disabling? Is it permanently disfiguring? Lastly, is it excruciating?” If it doesn’t fit one of those five categories, then it isn’t important.”
—Rhonda Cornum, United States Army Major. As quoted in Newsweek magazine, “Perspectives” page (July 13, 1992)