Commonly referred to as simply a portal,
a Web site or service that offers a broad array of
resources and services, such as e-mail, forums,
search engines, and on-line shopping malls. The
first Web portals were online services, such as AOL,
that provided access to the Web, but by now most of
the traditional search engines have transformed
themselves into Web portals to attract and keep a
larger audience. |
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What is a web portal?
Web portals provide a single point of access to a
variety of content and core services, and ideally offer
a single sign-on point. Portals give you a managed
online experience, and can be particularly helpful as a
start and return point for those new to the web. Portal
content is dynamically managed through databases,
application windows, and sometimes cookies. Portals
often include calendars and to-do lists, discussion
groups, announcements and reports, searches, email and
address books, and access to news, weather, maps, and
shopping, as well as bookmarks. Web portals often
organize information into channels, customizable page
containers where specific information or an application
appears. Channels make it easy to locate information of
interest by categorizing content.
Web portals offer advantages over home pages because
they can offer user-specific, customized views. For
example, a university's web portal could offer
customized, specific content available to you based on
your roles (e.g., faculty, student, staff, and
administrator). Roles help the portal determine your
privileges for reading, searching, updating, adding
channels, and personalizing content. The portal uses the
information stored in the roles to offer the appropriate
content and service choices. You can then create
further, more specific content organization by selecting
from the personalized material and services, thus making
the portal work the way you do. |