I knew it! I knew there was a PortableApps.com-themed Google start page, but couldn't find it anywhere on the site, so I just gave up - until I installed the PAM 1.2 RC3 and it offered to set it as my homepage.
I had news.google.com as my homepage for the longest time, but that can be cluttered, and it's nice to have Firefox open on something neat and simple.
PortableApps.com is one of the first sites I look at.
Start.portableapps.com is a nice, clean page and it links to both Portableapps.com and news.google.com.
I suppose if I really wanted to be clever, I'd figure out how to make my own Firefox/Google start page and put all of my daily bookmarks around it, throw in a weather widget, something like that, store it on the flash drive (locally saved .html file isn't going to be blocked by work filters). But either I'm not that clever or my ambition isn't there; I don't know, but the Portableapps.com start page is nice.
So it just seems to me, FWIW, that the Start page could be linked from a couple places on the site, e.g. the Firefox Portable page (e.g. "Here's a great site to set as your portable homepage").
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Maybe edit the search box function to use the PA Google search?
PortableApps.com Advocate
I didn't know what you meant until I pulled up my new homepage and ran a search (on Firefox, it was the first thing to pop into my mind). I didn't realize it even branded the search results and earned PortableApps.com some money - provided the end-user isn't a selfish bastard who uses Adblock Plus. Oops.
That would be a good thing for a default setting for Firefox, to use the PA Google search for Google searches, but some users would consider it too invasive. Here's how I'd do it: Set the homepage for Portable Firefox to start.portableapps.com without asking. It's less annoying than the "About Firefox" page Mozilla throws at you, and since everybody changes their homepage anyway, it's not a big deal. Second, or rather first, post-install, tell people the Google search is altered to let PA.com get a slice of ad revenue from searches by co-branding the searches with the PA logo. Tell them it's a nice way to effortlessly support PA but let them opt out. Some will, but some probably won't. IANAP, so I don't know how hard it would be to code the switch into the installer.
But no, I meant the Start page should be indexed here at PortableApps.com. But your suggestion is good, too.
but I have the GreaseMonkey and Greasefire extensions in my Firefox. GreaseMonkey uses scripts to change the look and feel of a webpage and greasefire finds the scripts. There a five scripts here on this site, but they deal with the forum layout. There are approx. 300 dealing with Google, maybe someone could write one for the start portableapps.com page, adding what your wanting. It's a thought. On Google, one script adds a map button to the Google Search feature, just one example.