7 Ways to Make Your Homepage Exciting

Are you sick of your homepage being the same boring thing all the time? Here are seven ways to spice up your homepage, and it will even let you learn something in the process.

1. A Random Featured Wikipedia Entry

http://toolserver.org/~erwin85/randomarticle.php?lang=en&family=wikipedia&categories=Featured+articles

This URL was shared over at Reddit and will automatically direct to a random featured Wikipedia entry each time it's called up, weeding out the boring, jargon-y articles that Wiki's own random generatior can call up.
2. A Random Dictionary Word

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Random

Increase your vocabulary a little at a time by making this URL your start page. It's like a word-of-the-day calendar for the new millenium; try to use it in an email today.
3. A Random Movie on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/random/title

Movie buff? Have your homepage display a new popular movie title each time you open your browser. This url from IMDB shows titles based on what's popular now, so the generator swings towards recent films, but it should still help you add a few good films to your must-see list.
4. Random Deviation from DeviantART

www.deviantart.com/random/deviation

Making this url your home page will open up a random piece of art from the giant library of DeviantART, the world's largest online art community with over 239 million pieces of art from over 24 million artists. FYI, this URL can sometimes be not-work-safe thanks to freedom of artistic expression.
5. The Flickr Explore Page

http://www.flickr.com/explore/

Flickr's navigational start page is also a great place to start your day, featuring a random image from Flickr's rated "Interesting" pool at the top.
6. Google Reader Play

http://www.google.com/reader/play/

This link will open up a preview of an article that's gotten big attention from folks around the world using Google Reader. If you've got time to kill, you can browse through even more stories through the thumbnails at the bottom of the page.
7. A Completely Random Website

http://www.randomwebsite.com/cgi-bin/random.pl

Using this URL from randomwebsite.com as your new homepage will transport you to a far-away corner of the internet you've probably never been to before. The makers of the site try to filter out pornography and advertising from their network of links, but you can't be sure websites haven't changed hands and changed course. This one is like internet roulette, and you should only play if you're in an environment that doesn't need to be work-safe or kid-safe.

For more information see Apartment Therapy.