Customizable homepages these days are quite powerful, with some emulating what a desktop GUI for those on the move, and others which can be customized to your liking with widgets. These four pages all offer that little something that makes a start page into your own homepage.

1. Netvibes

   This site is clean, easy to use, and can be customized with all sorts of different widgets to get the page that you want. By default, the site loads with a Facebook and e-mail widget; once you create a Netvibes account you can associate it with your other internet accounts.
   
   Having a homepage to load up everything you need to see on the internet can certainly speed things up.The content, layout, and number of pages it up to you; this is a great homepage to start with. However, the control you have over the layout is limited to the "three column" setup, rather than placing widgets where you please.

2. Protopage

   Along the same lines as Netvibes, this site provides another highly customizable homepage; it essentially provides the same functions as Netvibes, but with the ability to place widgets wherever you please. This is a mix between a simple start page displaying relevant information, and the all-out web desktops that you can find. You can post "sticky notes" anywhere on your homepage, along with to-do lists to keep track of your life and remind you of important tasks. You can also set it up to fetch podcasts and cartoon strips, and you can add as many pages as you please.
   

3. Widgetop

   Going a step further than Protopage is the colourful Widgetop; while the functions are essentially the same as the previous two pages, this provides more of a "desktop" feel. Your widgets can be dragged much like windows on a desktop. This also has "sticky notes" widgets so that you can post reminders which you can see every time you start up your browser.
   
   One difference is that this site can't be organized into different pages like Netvibes and Protopage. There is plenty of room on the desktop, and it is functional while still looking nice.
   

4. Jooce

   This is one of the more powerful solutions; one of the goals listed by the site is to provide a functional desktop which can be accessed from any computer. The site demo shows a fully functional desktop which can play media, display information, and provides all the IM clients you need to stay connected with friends. You even get multiple desktops along with the 3D "cube" interface, much like Ubuntu offers.
   
   It appears that this site is best for those who need their own desktop but are using different computers frequently. I haven't personally signed up for the site, so I don't know the space limitations (i.e. how much video/music can be stored) but this site looks quite promising, even for those who aren't using many different computers.
   

These four pages all amalgamate most of our internet tasks into one page; as opposed to visiting several different sources, you can receive all of the important news that you want, and have it laid out the way you want.

Even if your friend is visiting you and is insisting on logging in to his user profile in order to digg your fantastic article, don't let him because your item will soon just vanish from the list of upcoming stories.

2. Thou shalt not post all of thy submissions to Offbeat News

digg seems to like it when your stories fit into one of the supplied categories. Dumping all of your items into Offbeat News just because they seem quirky to you is a great way to get yourself into trouble.

3. Thou shalt understand that thy Friends have less weight in the digger algorithm than non-friends

There are a lot of ways that the famously secret digg algorithm influences your upcoming stories and affects their placement within the Upcoming Stories pages or on the pages in the category listings. Higher rated diggs may be seen more often in the page listings, and even more so if they aren't all from your same group of friends, but actually have been dugg by a user who voted for it because they liked it.

4. Thou shalt not post too many links with thy digg article in the comments section

Posting a link with a digg article in the comments section of someone's digg may be fine once, if It is relevant. Try it more than once, and you may watch that same article that you had wanted so badly to promote, vanish before your eyes in the Upcoming Story pages and Cloud View.

5. Thou shalt be a valuable and relevant member of thy digger community

If you browse through digg, opening articles and digging them, commenting here and there on interesting articles that move you, adding friends that you like and respect, occasionally burying a story for a real reason - everything is rosy. If however, you start posting low quality content on your user page and begin to post lots of comments everywhere just to see your rants and raves get plastered all over the comments section of someone else's digg rather than actually responding to what you've read- don't plan on hitting the homepage any time soon. Your digger style will be working against you.

6. Thou shalt not digg an item without opening the link and reading the article first

Don't try to run through the page listings, digging everything as you go without opening up the articles and reading them first. The digg computers know you haven't really opened the article, and they may at some point react to your digg vote as an attempt at spamming.

7. Thou shalt not submit duplicate content

When you submit an item, you will see a list asking you to double check to see if this content has been posted. If it has, don't submit your item. If the article or photo has been on digg previously but you think that there is a relevance to showing other readers who may not have seen it, that may be fine. If you are posting a news item from Reuters and it has already been submitted under a Yahoo listing, but with the Reuters syndicated logo on the front page, don't submit, or plan on getting buried and removed from the front page if you somehow get there.

8. Thou shalt not digg only thyself and thy friends

In order to be a relevant community member, you will need to respond to more content other than just your own or your friends stories. If other users don't see you voting, even on the good articles, and you never write quality comments to others, no one will get to know you and it will be hard to get the digger community to digg your stories.

9. Thou shalt not digg too fast

If you open the articles one after the other, and immediately digg them and move on, the digg computers won't like it. There are stories of users who were given the boot because they were told no one could possibly have read so much, so fast. You don't have to read every word, but don't turn into an assembly line without pausing to check the article before you digg it. If the link doesn't work, or there if is a mistake or problem with the item, don't digg it.

10. Thou shalt not use the multiple digg ID approach.

If you are thinking about opening multiple user ID's and using them to vote for each other, save yourself the time, it won't work. You may be able to fool the digger man once, but he will soon catch on to your sins.

Building your digger integrity

Thou will never make the home page like this using these types of dubious strategies. The digg computers sniff this stuff out, and it smells to them like spam. It won't matter if you have 140 votes; you won't hit the coveted digg homepage with any of these methods.

In order to be a successful digger, you had better sit down right now and understand a few things:

• If you want to be a front page digger, you have to sit and digg a lot.
• If you want to be a front page digger, you have to need to submit a lot of stories.
• If you want to be a front page digger, you have to submit and digg even more stories if you want the stories you submitted two hours ago to make another algorithmic trip through the various pages of digg make their way through the ranks, and hit the top of the digg.com Homepage.