An Internet portal is a website that presents information from various sources. It is designed to be the starting point for a user when connecting to the Internet and includes links to the most common types of information that people search for. Virtually all Internet portals are based on some type of search engine.
Internet portals are places to collect information online.
The most popular Internet portals contain categorized directories of the top sites, as well as news, weather, entertainment, and financial updates. The idea is that users visit these sites as their first stop when looking for information. In turn, users are expected to use the company’s own search engine if they are looking for a site not linked to the Internet portal.
On mobile devices, the functions of an Internet portal are performed by the device itself.
Most of the major search engines have their own Internet portals. Many use the same brand, but maintain the portal on a separate site called Bing. Some even host their main search engine on a portal, effectively offering two different ways to find information on the same site.
Some Internet portals are produced by a particular Internet provider. The best known was America Online, where at one point only subscribers could access the portal through software, rather than seeing it as a public web page. Originally, AOL used a “walled garden” approach, in which subscribers only had access to specific pages, rather than being able to use the entire web. Usually these pages were exclusive to AOL. During this period, the AOL portal was the only way for subscribers to navigate to information available online.
It is also possible for an internet portal to focus on a specific theme or topic rather than the internet as a whole. For example, many national governments have a single website that acts as a directory for individual departments or agencies. This means that a citizen can find government information if they are not familiar with the corresponding department’s website or even if they are not sure which department is responsible for a given topic.
With mobile devices, it can be argued that the functions of an Internet portal are performed by the device itself. Most smartphones will have menu buttons that perform portal functions, such as links to read an email account, check the weather, or view stock quotes. Compared to traditional internet portals, these menus are often much more customizable, making them easier to use as unwanted information can be removed.
Acoustic couplers, which send and receive computer data over telephone lines, predate modern modem technology in the early days of Internet use.
