GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 355251
Product specific homepage
Last modified: 2012-07-31 16:21:54 UTC
The Epiphany home page currently points to "http://www.google.com" per default. Wouldn't it be better to set it to "http://www.gnome.org/start/X.YY" for every release? Another option could be to create a Gnome start page just for the purpose of using it as home page in Epiphany. After some discussion on the marketing list I think that a page which is specifically suited for Epiphany has to serve two purposes: 1. Be useful. google.com is absolutely useful. A Epiphany specific homepage must serve as an entry point to WWW for the users. 2. Be informational. That's what the current homepage doesn't fulfill. It should provide the interested user with information on the enhancements of this release.
The thread starts at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/marketing-list/2006-September/msg00054.html Epiphany developers might be interested reading it.
This is a really good idea. I'm marking this as confirmed since I don't find a reason to say no to this. Also I'm changing it from component Preferences to Website, I guess that's the closest to a start page.
Hmm. Have you thought about localisation? Currently, Epiphany uses the Google homepage in the current locale as much as possible. Also, please explain why *on earth* would my mother care about the enhancements in the latest Epiphany release? Surely somebody interested in this information can find Planet GNOME News?
Ok, not the last enhancements but maybe an introduction to Epiphany, as you have in your homepage. On the other side, I bet most popular distros go and customize the page, anyway. I'm just seeing that Epiphany in Ubun tu Edgy opens by default a local page about Ubuntu... Localisation is a good point, but nothing that should block a good solution. It is planned that www.gnome.org will have product pages translated, and Epiphany is a clear candidate to have one. These pages are for general users, with introductory text and nice images. Maybe this could be a better candidate. On the other hand we know that users wanting to have Google as default page need just 1 minute to make it their default... I agree it's a kind of gift to Google. For that matter, create a Epiphany page with Google AdSense and Search, so at least Google pay you back for the sponsorship. ;)
Yes, a localized homepage has been on our wishlist for a long time. As for Google, I doubt that we're even a blip on their radar. Requests not to advertise the Google Firefox toolbar to Epiphany UA's were ignored.
If I can help with French l10n for the homepage, please let me know.
The problem here is that the 'start page' content would need to be created and maintained; maybe this should be re-assigned to the web team ?
I'm not (yet) used to Gnome practices, but it sounds reasonable to me.
I recommend to leave this enhancement request sleeping while Epiphany hasn't got a localized product page at wgo, or while GNOME hasn't got their own web services aroiund the GNOME Online Desktop project. ;) Although... what about Wikipedia as default? I we were to make gifts why not making them to someone needing them more (and fitting completely in the free* story). The link to the localized homes should be set manually, but I bet translators are going to be happy doing this research once to promote their own languages, and then Wikipedia keeps their links really static - so no more maintenance is needed.
I just read Web Browser Homepage Observations http://clarkbw.net/blog/2007/09/07/web-browser-homepage-observations/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random is an interesting default URL :)
(In reply to comment #0) > The Epiphany home page currently points to "http://www.google.com" per default. > > Wouldn't it be better to set it to "http://www.gnome.org/start/X.YY" for > every release? Another option could be to create a Gnome start page just > for the purpose of using it as home page in Epiphany. > > After some discussion on the marketing list I think that a page which is > specifically suited for Epiphany has to serve two purposes: > > 1. Be useful. google.com is absolutely useful. A Epiphany specific homepage > must serve as an entry point to WWW for the users. > > 2. Be informational. That's what the current homepage doesn't fulfill. It > should provide the interested user with information on the enhancements of this > release. I agree to this. I'm not really fond of Google anymore seeing how they deal with a user's privacy with some of their products (I for example now use Clusty as my search engine). A more general website such as the Epiphany product website would be nice.
We don't have a homepage anymore, so this is obsolete. Thank you.