Site visitors are decreasingly entering via the homepage and instead are entering through other entry points, such as responding to an offer or following a search inquiry.

At least one of the major portals is well aware of this occurrence.

"Yahoo! recognizes that internet consumers come to our sites from many different entry points," Meagan Busath, a Yahoo spokesperson, said. "We are focused on making sure that each of our very popular starting points helps people find and connect to whatever they want, including the Yahoo Home Page, Yahoo Search and Yahoo Mail, as well as our mobile services like Yahoo Go. As a result, we have seen usage of all of these Yahoo services increase over the past year (Comscore WorldMatrix, May 2006 - May 2007)."

But is the homepage dying a slow death? We reached out to industry experts and asked if homepages are still important. And how can brands approach site design and messaging differently to leverage new site access patterns?

Whether they liken the homepage experience to a book, a restaurant, a game of tag or a date, our contributors have a lot to say on the subject.

Author notes: Nanette Marcus is the cover stories editor at iMedia Connection. Read full bio.