Web portals are gateways to organized information on the internet, offering more than just search engines. They include customizable access to data such as news, stock reports, and email services. Portals can be for general or authorized personnel use, including business and government portals. As technology develops, web portals will continue to evolve with new features driven by customer demand and businesses’ reliance on online services.
Web portals are organized gateways that help structure access to information found on the Internet. Much more than just a search engine, they usually include customizable access to data such as stock reports, local, regional and national news, and email services. Most of the well-known portals are commonly identified as search engines, although they offer much more than just the ability to search the Internet.
While many people assume that the web portal has been around since the invention of the internet, that is not the case. The first tools used to access data online were simple search engines that allowed users to search for keywords or key phrases to find online pages, known as web directories. As the use of this feature could be expanded to include the ability to enter a specific web address as a means of connecting to a website, these tools evolved into what is known as a search engine.
A real portal offers both of these features and so much more. In addition to the ability to browse the Internet using keywords and enter web addresses to reach specific pages online, it also provides services such as the ability to set up a custom user page that provides instant access to weather reports. These pages also provide access to current stock market activity, profiles of other users who use the portal and various types of news of interest to the individual user. The online portals also offer free email services which can be accessed from this main page, using specific login credentials. Those same credentials are also used to allow the user access to services such as online messaging, social networks and personal ads.
While there are many web portals designed for general consumer use, there are also portals created for the use of authorized personnel only. This is the case with the business or corporate portal. In this case, access is limited to those with access credentials issued and managed by the employer. Portals of this type are useful for allowing traveling employees to access corporate servers and connect with documents and other data saved on the server. Company portals can also be configured to allow customers to browse, search and purchase goods and services from the company.
Government portals are another example. As per the business model, users must have authorized access to the page in the form of login credentials, security clearances, and other proprietary access codes. This helps ensure that employees can only access data considered to be within their area of responsibility and effectively prevents the use of proprietary data by unauthorized individuals to be virtually impossible.
Due to the continued development of Internet technology, there is every reason to believe that web portals will continue to evolve over time. Just as many of the features associated with portals today weren’t available a few years ago, new features are sure to emerge in the years to come. Many of these will be driven not only by customer demand but also by the growing reliance of businesses of all sizes on services delivered online.
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