A Web "supersite" that provides a variety of services including Web search, news, blogs, discussion groups, shopping and links to other sites. The major general-purpose portals are Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL, all of which offer free Web-based e-mail accounts. TV networks and newspapers provide general-purpose portals, but not e-mail. Many portals allow the home page to be personalized (see personal portal). Prior to the Web, CompuServe and AOL functioned as portals, aggregating information from various sources.
The Vortal
Portals also serve vertical markets. Trade magazines, associations and special interest groups host vertical portals (vortals) and provide news and articles for their industry such as IT, banking and insurance. The vortal may also include general information such as top news stories and weather; however, their search capabilities are often limited to their own archives, rather than the entire Web. See corporate portal, business intelligence portal and portal server.
The Vortal
Portals also serve vertical markets. Trade magazines, associations and special interest groups host vertical portals (vortals) and provide news and articles for their industry such as IT, banking and insurance. The vortal may also include general information such as top news stories and weather; however, their search capabilities are often limited to their own archives, rather than the entire Web. See corporate portal, business intelligence portal and portal server.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- The long and winding road to MSN's reinvention as a social hub
- MSN, why bother?I remember what a turd-fest the original MSN was. When I got my DSL from Qwest a few years back, MSN was the service provider. So my last peek at MSN was in June 2007 and I never went back there -- it was still a crap-fest. How...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-04
- Ubuntu Karmic Koala launches to mixed reviews
- Not released yetKarmic koala hasn't been officially released yet and the bug that this article was talking about has been fixed for the official releaseMultiple hard drives issue already fixedThe problem only affected the 64-bit version of the release candidate, and it has apparently been fixed for the final release.wowwow,...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-29
- Document rental service brings "deep web" content to the mainstream
- Writers?Where are all of these papers coming from? Who owns and creates this original content, and how are they being paid for their efforts? See you later SQL2008 Full Text Indexing?Hi,If have a need to store & manage massive numbers of documents (docs, images, videos, pdfs, etc). ...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-27
- Net pioneer GeoCities finally laid to rest
- Yahoo shut down GeoCities the site that offered a free platform for users to create their own Web sites during the dot-com boom. Yahoo paid $4.5 billion for it. The closure of GeoCities marks the end of an era, as the Internet community says goodbye to the pioneering Web...
- News items 2009-10-27
- Easy Login Assist 5.1 (Windows)
- Help you to auto-login to website (Portal, Mail, Forum, Bank, Intranet etc) or application (Game, IM etc). Auto-identify login website or application to resist fraud or camouflage. Auto-protect login process to prevent thefts of Trojan or spyware. Safely manage your privacy data in different catalogs. Provides catalog management, record bookmark,...
- Software downloads 2009-10-23
- Google's Schmidt: Mimicking Office completely not 'a good use of our time'
- Commonsense! Please get rid of MS Office!Please do NOT copy anything MS Office has leavethis lethargic conglomeration of software vendorsMS purchased and created the 2G office suitethat is full of security holes.I hope they go their own route and NO one needsa office suite that cost $400+$700 for a companyseat...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-22
- Global warming promises more hunger, more innovation
- Hopefully not a repeatThe idea of GM foods is found most abhorrent in the nations with some of the worst food problems? Also, did anyone notice that the FPRI report indicates that more than 50% of the world's agricultural green house emissions are generated by the primitive natural agriculture...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-22
- PG Real Estate Solution OCT.2009 (Windows)
- PG Real Estate--a turnkey solution to build a Real Estate Web Site. Highly flexible, it is a perfect solution for Powerful Real Estate Portal (property lease, rent and sale marketplace), Independent Realtors or Real Estate Agencies. The script has a flexible structure allowing you to manage your site via site...
- Software downloads 2009-10-22
- Looking beyond Windows 7 and Office; Pondering the alternatives
- No reason to look beyond Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Office, its a complete solution out of the box for every business need. Pondering the alternatives will take all of 5 seconds before realizing the alternatives won't live up to what Microsoft has to offer.Preceding message brought to you...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-20
- Microsoft wins seat at health IT table
- this is shamIt is inconceivable that an anti christian organization like M$ would work with a christian hospital.Scary having your stuff running on MS softwareIt's scary to have any data about you stored on a Microsoft Infrastructure. Even scarier that it's your health records.Glad I don't use (or will...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-19
- Web Help Desk Pro 9.2.2.1 (Mac)
- This help desk software Pro edition of Web Help Desk for Mac OS X Server offers an industry leading web-based help desk software that empowers IT help desk technicians with iPhone web-app access, email-to-ticket conversion, trouble ticket email notifications, self-service knowledge base, track billable time & materials, LDAP & AD...
- Software downloads 2009-10-19
- What makes Microsoft's SharePoint tick?
- Make a post explaining what SharePoint is...As you said, it is a complex product. I remember when Lotus Notes came out, it was difficult to pin it to a traditional category - what IS it? SharePoint may have some of the same issues of perception.What is SharePoint:There are 2 SharePoint?s,...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-16
- Web Help Desk Free 9.2.2.1 (Mac)
- The free help desk software edition of Web Help Desk for Mac OS X server installation offers an industry leading web-based help desk software feature set that allows you to track and fulfill all of your technical support trouble tickets and customer service requests with ease, all through an intuitive...
- Software downloads 2009-10-16
- LG Bliss - white (US Cellular)
- LG is one of the top makers of touch-screen feature phones, and though many of them go to big national carriers like Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless like the LG enV Touch and the LG Xenon for example, quite a number of them make it to regional carrier U.S. Cellular...
- Product reviews 2009-10-14
- SharePoint Statistics: The Real Reason Behind SharePoint's Price Tag
- Governance and TrainingFrom my experience, the technology is not expensive, when compared to most DMS / ECM / portal solutions. The costs come later, further down the road, when mistakes have already been made and the reputation of the solution is allready marred.It's almost too easy to get a...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-14
- My Journal 2.0 (Windows)
- My Journal is a program designed to allow you to capture your life, one day at a time. My Journal is intuitive and easy, yet powerful enough to preserve your memories for years to come. My Journal allows you to pour out your mind and safely tuck it away into...
- Software downloads 2009-10-13
- The state of US workforce technology adoption
- Did you know that among US information workers that: 35% use laptops and 76% use desktop computers? Only 11% use smartphones? 57% are optimistic about technology, but 43% are pessimistic? We know because we surveyed 2,001 US information workers that use computers...
- Blog posts 2009-10-08
- Google: It's not me, it's you
- Wow, this thing is coolI'm a Google fan, but so far this looks much betterI know!I love it. It doesn't have all topics, but it had most of the stuff I searched for.weak, not for techiesJust put some not very popular words and the result yields nothing.Hmm interestingLast I spoke...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-06
- Open source and forced obsolescence
- You gutted your own articleFirst, no one forces you to update your software, period. There *are* companies that won't support antiques, and who can blame them? Support costs are very high, especially since one person or team can't be expected to be expert in a dozen different versions of the...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-02
- GroundWork Monitor 6.0 offers new view into virtual data center
- GroundWork is a leading open source systems and network provider and recently enhanced its platform with JBoss and Microsoft System Center support. That's not all.  GroundWork Monitor 6.0, which shipped on September 2, offers a new "Seurat" view designed to allow administrators to access the status and...
- Blog posts 2009-10-01
Neighboring Terms
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
Popular Sanity Saver Videos
