Every so often, I decide to switch my home page from a basic Google search box to something else - whether it is another Google service such as iGoogle, another search engine, such as Microsoft Live, or another portal service, such as My Yahoo! - because:

• I want (believe?) that I should be using a service that aggregates the information I use most often, onto a single page;
• I need (really?) to use additional services (such as currency convertors) on a regular basis;
• somebody has recommended a site as the answer to all the problems of the Internet;
• at heart I'm a techie, and I want to make sure that I'm not missing out on a service that's better than Google;

And invariably each time I end up switching back, normally within a few hours, for one (or more) of the following reasons:

• Speed - I've yet to find another website that loads more quickly than the Google search page;
• Performance - in part related to speed, but more about the quality of results that are returned;
• Need - when you get down to it, how often to you actually read every item in every RSS feed you are subscribed to, or use every widget on your customised homepage?
• Aesthetics - even though Google makes its money from advertising, its home page is conspicuously clear of adverts, and in particular, adverts served from third party services;

Are there any lessons to be learnt from this?  Perhaps not; after all, this is my personal opinion, and I know plenty of other people who are more than happy with their content-rich services (such as Netvibes), but for me, I think Google have the right approach:

• keep the first page as clean, functional and fast as possible;
• let users find content easily;
• resist the urge to provide a page that tries to deliver everything, and overwhelms the user with information.