I can't get TD to automatically go to my default view, Searches, on any reliable basis. I have seen other similar comments in these forums, but no definitive answer.
Is this a known bug? On the "list" for a fix? Browser related (I'm forced to use IE7 here at work)?
That's strange... the default view is set in your Account Settings (assuming you've done that?) and it's always worked reliably for me in IE, Chrome and FireFox.
Given that this is a 'hard' setting (as opposed to something stored in your browser's cache) there's nothing I can think of that you could try.
You have probably bookmarked a deep-link into Toodledo which is bypassing the default view logic. Try changing your bookmark to just "www.toodledo.com"