two problems: i've lost my igoogle home page with all my gadgets and i have a split screen i can't get rid of
The split screen problem occurred first. I tried to open one of my bookmarked web sites and instead of filling my screen the screen split, showing a portion of my home page and a portion of the site i wanted to view. in the process of trying to troubleshoot the problem i lost and cannot relocate my igoogle home page with all my selected gadgets, e.g., sports headlines, stock market, weather, etc...
Wšykne wótegrona (2)
Opening in the side bar is the default for bookmarks that are created via a link or button on a website. You can check the Properties of a bookmark via the right-click context menu in the side bar (Ctrl+B; Cmd+B on Mac).
In the Bookmarks Manager (Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks) you can click the More button in the Details pane at the bottom right.
Make sure that "Load this bookmark in the side bar" is not selected.
This time it was after an automatic Windows Update. I lost my iGoogle home page, but only on Firefox -- it shows up perfectly well on Chrome and the dreaded IE, but whatever I tried on Firefox, I just had a white Google home page, with all my gadgets lined up on the hated left margin tab.
I went back to iGoogle UK. Same Firefox, same iGoogle home page that I've had for so long, just had to trade away to get the desired result.
Try it yourself: http://www.google.co.uk/ig#t_0 -- it'll save your blood pressure.