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Web portals are the next evolution in Internet services (e.g., Yahoo, MSN, AOL), providing a more robust one-point access to a variety of content and core services, and ideally offering a single sign-on point. Portals give you a managed online experience, and can be particularly helpful as a start and return point for those new to the web. Portal content is dynamically managed through databases, application windows, and sometimes cookies.
Portals often include calendars and to-do lists, discussion groups, announcements and reports, searches, email and address books, and access to news, classifieds, weather, maps, and shopping, as well as old-fashioned bookmarks.
Web portals often organize information into channels, which are customizable page containers where specific information or an application appears. Channels make it easy to locate information of interest by categorizing content.
But web portals are more than just a page of hyperlinks, and they offer advantages over home pages because they are customizable and personalizable, and therefore capable of offering user-specific views. For example, a university could offer a web portal and have customized, specific content available to you based on your roles (e.g., faculty, student, staff, administration).
Real Estate Portals like 2letservice.com have customized, specific content available to realtors based on their roles (e.g., buyers, sellers, builders, brokers).
Roles help the portal determine your privileges for reading, searching, updating, adding channels, and personalizing content. Then, the portal uses the information stored in the roles to offer the appropriate content and service choices. You can then create further, more specific content organization by selecting from the personalized material and services, thus making the portal work the way you do.
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