What is a portal?

The largest portals include Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.  Each of these offers its own search engine, news source, opportunities to buy and sell, e-mail, and so on.  Some of these began simply as search engines but added other services, hoping to keep customers using their portal for longer periods of time.  For a while, in the ‘90s, many different companies were competing for their share in the web portal world – but now, the portals are mostly set and there isn’t much room (or need) for more.

It is possible to have a personal portal on the internet, where your site can provide customers with specific ways to access certain types of information.  These led to regional portals and country-based portals which aim to funnel people needing information about that country into their specific portal.  There are also hosted portal companies who provide services to those who want to share information about something much smaller, such as personal websites with a blog or e-newsletter attached.  Add to that the growing trend of domain-specific portals, where there’s a portal for everything related to businesses such as real estate (such as a multi-list site which can be accessed by realtors across the country).  Portals are the entryway into the world wide web, and everyone wants people to use their door.