Personalised links on a Home Page?

[clivemcg]

Hi Everyone,

I'm tendering for a web site for the residents committee of an apartement building (40 apartements) and the general idea is that the site's Home page will become the 'Set as My Home Page' choice for residents via the usual IE javascript for doing that. (Is there code for Apple users to do the same, by the by?)

Consequently the page will consist of an RSS news feed, news relating to the building, a load of Quick Links (local Phone company, Cable supplier etc.) and a web search engine box - in other words a portal to wherever they want to get to - all that is in hand.

I have however come across sites (e.g. http://auction.start4all.com/ ) where the visitor can create a list of their own personal favourite web sites that then appear, and remain, in the page when it's reloaded.

Via a pop-up the visitor can type in the name of their favourite links, and those sites http addresses, and the link(s) then appear in the designated area of the page.

I know this would be a great addition to the site as it would really personalise the page for each resident of the building making it more likely that they would set it as their Home Page..

My question then is: "How Do They Do That?"

Presumably cookies are involved and is it something that a humble HTML designer such as myself can replicate?

Does it sit on the site's main server or elsewhere? The Start4All sites feature one-off pages for all sorts of niche sites and, having visited a few for various other topics, I note my 'Favourites' come up the same no matter which site I visit.

Any pointers greatly appreciated.

[MuNKyonline]

I would have thought that you'd need some sort of scripting like PHP to do that, either use a database and/ or cookies somehow to track what the user wants and does not want.

Anyone else have more of an idea how this would work?