WONDERPORT is a portal of portals.

Examples of Portals

My list of the major web portals, with comments. Let's start with my favorites:

Google Directory: Very simple, no ads. Maximum useability, and the focus is on searching, Google's strong suit.

Dmoz/Open Directory Project: Open source web directory -- no ads!

The big commercial portals incorporate lots of ads while directing you to their own web properties when possible. All of these portals also let you customize them by creating an account.

AOL: The home page of the AOL empire; projects a freindly feeling, almost like a comic book.

Lycos The home page of the Lycos empire. Uses a navigation header and sidebar to frame featured content

MSN The home page of the Microsoft empire. The most crowded; almost a content or news site.

Netscape The original. Influenced by Yahoo! and AOL, but much more dense.

Yahoo! Incorporates many Yahoo! web services, and ads, without overwhelming the content. A good mix of commerce and useability.

Web Portals Defined

What is a web portal, and what makes a good one? Here's the definition from the Webopedia:

Commonly referred to as simply a portal, a Web site or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and on-line shopping malls. The first Web portals were online services, such as AOL, that provided access to the Web, but by now most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web portals to attract and keep a larger audience.

And here's the definition from Neil:

A portal site leads you to other web resources and sites, by organizing the destinations -- a launch pad. Many companies with a collection of web properties tie them together through their portal page. The major portals offer customization (e.g., my.yahoo.com); other portals select information based on a topic.

Neil Johnson talks about web design, based on his work at Cadent Technologies Corp.