Research on personal home pages is still rare. Many studies to date are exploratory, and the problem of drawing a sample that reflects the variety of existing home pages has not yet been solved. The present paper discusses sampling strategies and suggests a strategy based on the results retrieved by a search engine. This approach is used to draw a sample of 229 personal home pages that portray private identities. Findings on age and sex of the owners and elements characterizing the sites are reported.
