I use Google for many of my online services, but obviously Google isn’t the only option out there and in one service there are some big contenders - Start Pages. A Start Page or Home Page is the site that load when you first launch your browser. Some people use simple ones like the basic Google search page or their favorite website, but there are actually pages designed to act as your Start Page and give you a launching point for the rest of the web.

Two of the most popular are iGoogle and Netvibes. They offer modules and widgets to display multiple sources of information all in one custom organized location. So you can open your browser and see news feeds from your favorite sites, a calendar and your email, upcoming movies, weather, your Remember The Milk to-do list, etc.

Now Yahoo has joined in with their full release of My Yahoo 2.0. Ars Technica has a rundown of some of the new features, but one of the biggest is their use of the OpenSocial platform which will allow sharing of information between Yahoo and some of the other popular social sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Each of the different services have their pros and cons so I recommend giving them all a try to see what suits you best. My personal favorite is Netvibes, but iGoogle and My Yahoo are more popular.  Lifehacker has an interesting Start Page Hive Five that can also provide you with some more information about Start Pages.

Once again, the Common Craft folks have released another video. This time it’s a client video for LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is a business oriented social network to help you create a network of contacts that are good for you or your company.

Here is the video split into 2 parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Besides their popular “In Plain English” videos, they have a whole slew of client specific videos to check out as well. Their videos have been some of the best I’ve ever seen at presenting topics with short and simple explanations that are easy to comprehend.

I’ve mentioned Twitter in the past as an easy way to keep up with friends and even follow some government happenings. Lifehacker has now put up a new article listing other twitterers to follow to help you keep track of what interests you. Be sure to check out the comments for other suggestions as well.

For me, here are some that I have that aren’t people I know personally:

AskANinja - besides knowing when new episodes are out he also talks about new media
LaughingSquid - Lots of general blogger and computer culture commentary
Woot - One Day One Deal
MarsRover - Keep track of what the Mars rover is doing
CNNBreakingNews - Only “big” news and as it happens
TechCrunch - Computer culture information
WilWheaton - Well … because he’s a geek and he’s got interesting comments.

There’s a bunch of others I follow who I don’t know because their commentary is interesting or their twitter provides updates about their site or services. The easiest way to find interesting twitters to follow is to see what your friends are following.  Just remember not to turn into a friend whore.

Bill Gates served his last day as a full time employee of Microsoft today. Reuters has a good article about his goodbye.

There really is no denying that Bill Gates is the ultimate example of someone creating a startup and making it big. Bill is really the reason why computers are so common in homes today. It is also good to see that he is leaving Microsoft to help run one of the largest charitable foundations, which he founded, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Good luck Bill … and thanks.

Alexandra Rampy at SocialButterfly has collected a large list of government Twitter feeds. So here is another way to keep track of some of our Government’s happenings in a quick and easy way. It’s also a big indication of how popular and useful Twitter is becoming. Heck, even the NASA Mars Rover has its own Twitter.

I’ve presented this before, but if you aren’t familiar with Twitter, the folks at Common Craft have this nifty little video that does an excellent job of introducing you to the service:

It has become an excellent way to keep track of friends and information and since it’s free why don’t you give it a try? Just head over to Twitter and set up a free account - and then start looking for some folks to follow.

Joss Whedon is one of my favorite writers - Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TitanAE, Angel, and a bunch of other stuff that has entertained me. He has a new experiment called Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

This is going to be a web only release of 3 episodes and … it’s a musical. If you’re gonna do a web only release might as well make it a musical right?

There’s no official site yet but Dr. Horible’s Sing-Along Blog Blog which is an “official fan site”. Check them out for any late breaking information - and all the details on this interesting project.

Internet for Everyone is a coalition of companies and individuals who are intent on making broadband internet an open and available resource to as many Americans as possible. They have four main goals:

• Access: Every home and business in America must have access to a high-speed, world class communications infrastructure.
• Choice: Every consumer must enjoy real competition in online content as well as among high-speed Internet providers to achieve lower prices and higher speeds.
• Openness: Every Internet user should have the right to freedom of speech and commerce online in an open market without gatekeepers or discrimination.
• Innovation: The Internet should continue to create good jobs, foster entrepreneurship, spread new ideas and serve as a leading engine of economic growth.

Many companies have joined this effort including ACLU, BitTorrent, eBay, Google, Open DNS, Skype, Writers Guild of America (East and West), and a bunch of others.

America has fallen way behind Europe and Asia in regards to broadband and Internet for Everyone hopes to bring America’s high-speed services back into the forefront.

You can also read Google’s release about why they joined Internet for Everyone. The article does a good job of explaining why America needs to boost its high-speed internet services.

Information Week reports that Microsoft has pledged to support Windows XP with security updates and patches until the year 2014. This is a good move for consumers, especially businesses, as Vista has caused a lot of balking due to its compatibility issues with older software and the higher end computer requirements. It’s not such a good move for Microsoft as it doesn’t show real faith in Vista, so I’m pretty sure this was a last resort.

Microsoft will also provide a downgrade program where you can pay for Vista but install XP.  The main point of this is to be able to run software and hardware that isn’t yet compatible with Vista - at least that’s what Microsoft says is the reason. All that really matters is that you can still get XP instead of Vista for many more years.

George Carlin passed away yesterday at the age of 71. He will be sorely missed.

Matt has posted his latest video from his recent travels and it’s his best one yet.  Extremely cool and inspirational.

If you quote 5 words or more from the Associate Press (AP) - then you need to pony up $12.50. They’ve even provided a form for you to do so. Granted, they’ve wanted this cash long before now - but they are only recently starting to make a concerted effort to collect it.

Making Light has a pretty good rant that accounts for much of the general tone the bloggers are taking in regards to the APs new “crackdown” and TechCrunch has another good rundown of these events as well.

Bloggers often drive traffic to news sites and then those news sites get to pull advertising revenue from those new visitors - dissing bloggers like this will greatly reduce that traffic and therefore that revenue. Boycotting of AP stories at sites like Digg and Reddit where social news posting can create thousands of unique visitors for a site could account for a huge chunk of money lost. I think AP will be back pedaling on this pretty quickly.

Weezer released the official video for their song Pork and Beans a little while ago and my friend JerBones sent it along to me. The best thing about the video is that it stars all your favorite YouTube celebrities!

Weezer just extended quite a few 15 minutes of fame.

The latest version of Firefox will be released on June 17th and Mozilla is hopping to break a world record on that day.

I’ve been using the beta releases for the last couple months and I’m very happy with the new version of Firefox. It’s even convinced me to switch from Safari to Firefox on my Mac. It’s fast, it’s got excellent features, and if you change the icons to “small size” then it looks good too - on Linux, OS X, and Windows XP and Vista each install matches itself to the OS.

If you have been using Internet Explorer or Safari, I really recommend you give Firefox a try - but don’t download it until June 17th! Once you download it, you also have to hit up one of the most popular features - the add-ons. Check out some of the most popular add-ons to see if something suits your fancy. A couple of my favorites are AdBlock Plus, Download Status Bar, and Delicious Bookmarks.

Once you get used to using it, you’ll find lots of tips and tricks for making the browser work for you the way you want it to work - instead of having to work the way the browser wants you to work.

UPDATE: Some helpful hints on the new Firefox 3 at Lifehacker

Apple has released some new toys and info at their developers conference.  To get the details, check out Ars Technica’s run down of the keynote speech.

The basic gist is that the iPhone will be better and cheaper.  The biggest items are that they will have GPS and be 3G compatible - which means faster data speeds - and that they’ll be a lot cheaper ($200 for 8GB and $300 for 16GB). There are also lots of new applications coming out soon.

If you’ve been in the market for an iPhone - wait! The new ones come out July 11th in 22 countries (and 70 countries total shortly after that date).

The other info was that the new OS X 10.6 will be called Snow Leopard and .Mac service is going way and will be called MobileMe and provide enhanced services for iPhone and iPod touch users as well as OS X users.

Those who know me also know I tend to like animation. I just got back from seeing Kung Fu Panda and I must say - two thumbs way up. Good for kids and adults, lots of fun, and very good animation.  I am very glad I paid the extra money to see this one in the theater.

Higher Quality Versions

Be sure to stay past the credits for a very small, but nice, little bonus.