1.6.1 What are portals?

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    A portal is a web site or an area within a web site that draw visitors based on its content. Whereas online shopping sites provide information on products, a portal contains information, products, games, or other features that provide people with information not tied to a specific product. The goal of a company running a portal is to drive traffic to its site by providing information. Web sites use this traffic to gain advertising revenue, become a central hub for a specific industry or interest group, receive press coverage, or entice prospects to their site.

    Search Engines are the best known portals. These are the sites that people use as their launching point for web activities. The top portals (based on number of people visiting) are search engines like Yahoo!, Alta Vista, Go, and Excite,. People use these search engine portals as springboards to find information on the Internet. Large search engine web sites are not the only portals. Search engines have evolved from a location that catalogs pages on the web into town centers. Places people can go to get information, buy products and services, and sell products and services.

    On a smaller scale, there are many niche portals (also called hub portals). The goal of a niche portal is to be the starting point for people interested in a specified subject, industry, product, or service. Niche portals may catalog other sites within an industry or interest, they can also provide online training (eLearning), articles, and access to experts on a specific topic. Industry trade journals or trade organizations run many of the niche portals. Before the Internet, these trade journals or organizations were the unifying source for their respective industries to obtain information. Now, to maintain their status, the magazines and trade organizations have expanded to the Internet, providing industry information and web links.

    Within an industry an intermediary can become a portal. Depending on the focus of the site, consumers or purchasing agents may go to this site to buy or sell products.

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