Where should the home button go?

Recently I was on a website that had no visible means of returning to the homepage from a subpage, even the logo was not a link. Then I began to wonder how much of a role the “home” button played in the major leagues. So I set out to review the top 10 sites according to Alexa.

Here are my findings, broken down by each site and in the order of their popularity by Alexa:

1. #1 Google. Getting back to the homepage on Google is rarely needed because of the search bar built into literally every page of the site. Because of this, there really is no “home” button, rather the logo in most cases leads back to the homepage.
2. #2 Yahoo! The homepage is filled with more content than the Times. Rather effectively, almost every subsection of the site has a “Yahoo” homepage link, and usually in the exact same top-left position.
3. #3 MySpace. Upon launch this site was a user experience nightmare. Now it seems like they have switched gears and really unified the navigation system and even have a “home” button.
4. #4 YouTube. The main navbar remains mostly consistent throughout the site (has a “home” button) and only disappears on specific pages with just the logo to return to the homepage. Read the rest of this entry »