What are Web Portals?

In a building, a portal is the main door or gate that provides entry to other sections of the building. By an analogy, a web portal refers to a web site that functions as a point of access to an array of information and services from its main page. By further analogy, a web portal is like a publication that provides diverse information in several sections.

People using MSN and Yahoo! would know what web portals are. Typical web portals provide series of services such as shopping, e-mail, calendars, to-do lists, chat, games, address book, news, stock prices, weather reports and maps, among many others.

The Uses and Benefits of Web Portals

In the early days of the Internet, many online companies began to show interest in web portal development, coinciding with the rise of web browsers. The apparent aim was to exploit the user-base, since users spent more time on portals as compared to normal web sites. Soon, user-specific, customizable web portals began to make their mark. Today, web portals include many kinds like personal, corporate, regional, government and domain-specific portals.

Custom web portal development is now the recognized way of developing web portals to cater to a variety of visitors. E-commerce companies find many benefits in enterprise portal development: larger user base, higher search engine position, higher advertising revenues and recurring visitors. Corporate web portals have come a long way since the early days of the intranets. Today’s corporate portals offer extended capabilities for businesses: workflow management, collaboration between work groups, and managed content.

Web Portal Development Outsourcing

Many companies (especially India-based) are now offering cost-effective web portal development solutions. For such companies, there is immense scope in web portal design and web portal application development because web portals offer several benefits over home pages. Consistent look and feel, easy navigation, accessibility, customization features and multiple applications are some of the few benefits.