Homepage
Encyclopedia
A home page or homepage has various related meanings to do with web sites:
About homepages
- 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 pageWeb pageA web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext...
or local file that automatically loads when a web browserWeb browserA 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; this is also called a start pageStart pageA start page is a web page containing useful links or information which appears when a web browser starts. Start pages may include news, weather, games, and other information and web gadgets. Start pages may also aggregate information such as web links and RSS feeds...
. 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 pagePersonal web pagePersonal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature rather than on behalf of an employer or institution. Personal web pages are often used solely for informative or entertainment purposes....
, for example at a web hosting serviceWeb hosting serviceA web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet...
or a university web site, that typically is stored in the home directoryHome directoryA Home directory is a file system directory on a multi-user operating system containing files for a given user of the system. The specifics of the home directory is defined by the operating system involved; for example, Windows systems between 2000 and 2003 keep home directories in a folder...
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).
- Home page is now using as a full and thorough introductory refreshment to the user
About homepages
- Homepages contain the main information about a website.
- They contain links to other parts of the website.
- Many websites consist of only the homepage, such as one page blogs.
- Most often a homepage will appear when the websites URL is put into a browser without any trailing slash after the TLD extension. E.G. "http://www.example.com"