How many of you have your web browser set to start at a blank page? And how many of you are using a fancy Web 2.0 ajax driven widgetised start page? Now compare that to ‘the regular internet user’ and it wouldn’t surprise me to find a bias towards having a start page.

The same is true on mobile devices. And I suspect that while most power users will have the bookmarks displayed first (or even built their own start page), the majority of people are going to be using the default page that the phone’s firmware points to – which invariably will be the choice of the networks.

And in Europe, this has allowed the home pages of the self-same networks to become some of the top mobile sites in these territories, especially in the United Kingdom. And while that’s impressive, let’s not forget the caveat that browsing the network portal has in recent times been generally cheaper than browsing ‘the full web.’ Compare this to the US, with more flat rate data plans (and thus less of a two-tier web effect) – the top ten sites on mobiles looks a lot more like what you’d get from regular desktop computer surfing.

Now, UK network Three is looking to shake things up both in the UK and further afield with the launch of 3neXt, start pages, directories and social tools. Available from both your home computer (http://next.three.com/) and your mobile (http://3next.mobi/), 3neXt promises to leverage two of the most important features for new smartphones – how to find and install software, and what the good mobile sites are. What’s more, this service is open to anyone who registers, not just those on Three.

I’m not sure this is the best approach – looking at my browsing habits on my mobile I tend to visit Gmail, BBC News, and occasionally Twitter and Jaiku to see what my friends are up to. And it’s this last category that makes me think that the “portal to software and services” is the wrong approach. What we need is a portal to our friends. You don’t text your friends asking them what website they recommend, you text your friends to find out what’s going on.

The closest service to this right now is Facebook, and if it weren’t for their constant asking for you to log into the site (come on guys, there must be a way for persistent logins on a mobile device) then I’d be thinking that the Face-monster would be ready to take over the mobile space as well. But I do think that it’s showing the way forward in how people use the internet.

The personal is the way forward, and the personal portal is going to be a big player in the market. Harness that with a mobile phone – a device that is much more immediate, need it now, and personal to the user than any other device used to access the internet. Leverage that with a social network and you’re going to have a start page that the rest of the world can use. But for that, you need to look up from being a network specific portal, to an all encompassing Web 2.0 style service.

It’s great that Three have made that step, but replicating what used to work isn’t going to cut it any more. These are different classes of devices, and as such they need their own solutions. One network independent, one not crippled by geographic concerns, or usability. That’s a tall order, but with so many people looking for it, could we see an early example by the end of the year?