A portal
is a gateway to the World Wide Web. Any page with a link to another
Web site can technically be considered a portal. However, a good
portal will provide you with links to all the information that is
important to you on a daily basis.
For example,
the portal should provide links to recent news stories, current
weather reports and forecasts, stock quotes, sport scores, and any
other timely information. There are several Web sites that can provide
you with this information. Most of them can be customized to provide
you with the information you need.
Several
of these portals are an extension of a search engine. In order for
these to be useful, however, the portal needs to be more than just
a search engine.
Most
Web browsers have a preset startup page. Usually it is set to the
homepage of the Web browser (Netscape's home page
or Microsoft's home page) or the home page of your Internet
Service provider.
We suggest
that you change the default setting of your startup page to one
of these portals. I prefer Yahoo as my startup page (loads
fast):
| Favorite Portals |
Google
Google does not display pop-up advertising,
and is a very fast loading site. In addition to providing
easy access to more than 4 billion web pages, Google has
many special features to help you to find exactly what you're
looking for. Click the title of a specific feature to learn
more about it. This site does not require you to register,
so no "junk mail" from them. |
| Yahoo!
You can customize the page to include news, weather, sports,
stock quotes, and movie listings. This site also features
free-email and chat. |
| Excite
You customize the page to include news, weather, sports,
stock quotes, and movie listings. This site also features
free-email , chat and a customized news-search tool. |
| Lycos Personal
Guide
You can customize the page to include news, stock
quotes, sport scores, lottery results, "Top 5% Web Site
Reviews," weather information and horoscopes. |
| My News
From America Online. You can customize the page to include
news, sports, weather, and stock quotes. |
| My Netscape
You can customize the page to include news, sports, weather,
and stock quotes. This site also features free-email. |
Registration
may be required to use these Web sites since they can be customized
to each users particular needs. You may be asked to submit a "screen
name" (username) & a password. There is
no charge to use these portals-they receive their revenue from
advertising though, so be prepared to possibly receive "junk
mail" from them.
