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Even after they create their own version of Google’s front page, users still will be able to toggle back to the bare-bones look by clicking on a “Classic Google” link located near the top of the page.

Web surfers who personalize Google’s home page will be able to create a site that looks more like Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN.com, which both have tried to built multidimensional sites, or portals, designed to give visitors everything they might need.

(MSNBC content is distributed by MSN. MSNBC itself is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)

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Both Sunnyvale-based Yahoo and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft also have spent heavily on building improved search engines to challenge Google’s leadership in that specialty, hoping to tap into a rapidly growing ad market revolving around search requests. The companies also both offer tools that enable visitors to Yahoo.com and MSN.com to personalize their home pages.

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The bare-bones approach has served Google well so far, helping it create the fourth most trafficked site on the Web, according to comScore Media Metrix, a research firm. Google attracted 78.6 million unique U.S. visitors last month, lagging behind Yahoo (114.8 million unique visitors), MSN (97 million) and AOL (86 million), comScore said.

Google has a strong financial incentive to boost its traffic figures because it maximizes its profits when Web surfers click on advertising links displayed on its site. The search engine also delivers ads to hundreds of other Web sites, but has to share those sales commissions.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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