web portal, also known as a links page, presents information from
diverse sources in a unified way. Apart from the standard search engine feature,
web portals offer other services such as e-mail, news, stock prices,
information, databases and entertainment. Portals provide a way for enterprises
to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for
multiple applications and databases, which otherwise would have been different
entities altogether. Examples of public web portals are AOL, iGoogle, MSNBC,
Netvibes, and Yahoo!.[1]
In the late 1990's the web portal was a hot commodity. After the proliferation
of web browsers in the late-1990s many companies tried to build or acquire a
portal, to have a piece of the Internet market. The web portal gained special
attention because it was, for many users, the starting point of their web
browser. Netscape became a part of America Online, the Walt Disney Company
launched Go.com, and Excite and @Home became a part of AT&T during the late
1990s. Lycos was said to be a good target for other media companies such as CBS.
The portal craze, with "old media" companies racing to outbid each other for
Internet properties, died down with the dot-com flameout in 2000 and 2001.
Disney pulled the plug on Go.com, Excite went bankrupt and its remains were sold
to iWon.com. Some portal sites such as Yahoo! and those others first listed in
this article remain successful.
[edit] Types of portals
[edit] Horizontal vs. vertical portal (Vortals)
Two broad categorizations of portals are horizontal portals, which cover many
areas, and vertical portals, which are focused on one functional area. Another
definition for a horizontal portal is, that it is used as a platform to several
companies in the same economic sector or to the same type of manufacturers or
distributors.[2] A vertical portal consequently is a specialized entry point to
a specific market or industry niche, subject area, or interest, also called
vortal.[3]
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