V-C. Creating a Personal Portal

1. A Portal is a web site that provides a series of "windows" or links into other portions of the web. It is typically designed to serve as a home page, a comfortable spot from which to launch your browsing
2. Characteristics that one should look for in a Portal are:
1. Personalized content
1. news
2. sports
3. weather
4. financial information
5. listing of events (sports, cultural, etc.)
6. TV and movie listings
7. address book
8. appointment calendar and reminders
9. other information

2. An opportunity to create communities of interest
3. Web-based e-mail services
4. Search capabilities
5. Chat and Message Board features
6. Games and Software

3. Some current examples of Portals are:
1. My Way (myway.com)
2. Yahoo (my.yahoo.com)
3. Excite (my.excite.com)
4. Lycos (my.lycos.com)
5. Net Center (my.netscape.com/index2.psp)
6. My MSN (my.msn.com/)
7. NBCi (www.infospace.com/info.nbci/welcome.htm?ver=6024&)