> > > I have an odd habit of always using the "back" button to get to some, defined-only-in-my-head, "starting point."
> >
> > That's funny. I have that same basic habit/need.
>
> I generally like to go back to a "main" page before I go off somewhere else (for example, I would go back to the RinkWorks main page before surfing off to wherever from here). The reason for this is purely utilitarian: it keeps my "back" list from becoming clogged with all kinds of subpages that I'm not going to want to go back to. I navigate very heavily with the "Back" button, so this is kind of important to me.
>
> > But stranger still, something I've NEVER understood, not now, not when I started mucking around on the web before it was a mainstream thing: why on earth would people want "back to" links on subpages of sites that point back at the main page?
>
> The reason all of my subpages carry the "back" link is exactly that: if people get to them from some nefarious route, I want them to be able to get back to my main page easily.

Creepy. I was just thinking about this very issue a few hours ago this morning.

What Sam and Darien have said is all that I've ever been able to come up with: the "Back" button is for people who got to a subpage through [insert search engine of choice]. I never use 'em, and they annoy me for no good reason. I, too, like to go back to a main page before surfing along a new branch.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Iss