A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. Apart from the standard search engine feature, web portals offer other services such as e-mail, news, stock prices, information, databases and entertainment. Portals provide a way for enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications and databases, which otherwise would have been different entities altogether.

Types fo portal -

Personal Portal :

A personal portal is a site on the World Wide Web that typically provides personalized capabilities to its visitors, providing a pathway to other content. It is designed to use distributed applications, different numbers and types of middleware and hardware to provide services from a number of different sources. In addition, business portals are designed for sharing and collaboration in workplaces. A further business-driven requirement of portals is that the content be able to work on multiple platforms such as personal computers, personal digital assistants(PDAs), and cell phones/mobile phones. Information, news, and updates are examples of content that would be delivered through such a portal.

News portal :

The traditional media rooms all around the world are fast adapting to the new age technologies. This marks the beginning of news portals by media houses across the globe. This new media channels give them the opportunity to reach the viewers in a shorter span of time than their print media counter parts.

Government Web Portals :

At the end of the dot-com boom in the 1990s, many governments had already committed to creating portal sites for their citizens. These included primary portals to the Governments as well as portals developed for specific audiences.

Portal Design vs. Web Design -

In a Web project, the designers know who their client is, the purpose of the site, and the image that the client wants to project. Usually, the designers also know the type and amount of the initial content of the site. Portal designers, on the other hand, don't know any of these specifics. Designing a portal is a bit like creating an all-weather, unisex, one-size-fits-all garment, as opposed to a dress for Madonna to wear on Oscar night. The design of a portal has to be flexible enough to meet diverse clients' and users' needs, yet structured enough to accommodate a wide range of content and visual elements. A good portal should offer an attractive and usable default design which is not so deeply entrenched in the coding that it is difficult or costly for the customer to modify.