Thursday, November 3, 2011

Web Portal India: Types and Classification

There are many ways in which a portal is distinguished from a website. It could be on the basis of the facility of log-in or the extent of coverage of a particular subject and domain or even on the basis of extent of customization that can be done. Some would even say that the portals are more comprehensive in scope for a particular theme than a website. These have a lot more resources than a website. Further, a website is generally meant for some particular person or organization and showcases its ideas, products and services, whereas a portal India is not individual or entity centric but is theme-centric.
There are different types of portals and these can be classified on the basis of theme carried and on the basis of the users being catered to. Based on these factors, the classifications could be:
1. Vertical portals: These are also called Vortals. These are specific to a particular industry or vertical and carry all the possible information and resources pertaining to that industry. These could be made for giving information about a particular company or these could even be meant for conducting ecommerce.
2. Horizontal portals: These are focused on a wide range of topics and interests. The users can visit that section which of interest to him on the portal.
3. Knowledge portals: These are the portals essentially focus on providing information to the people on different topics or subjects. For example, a property portal might be providing the information of different land use patterns of a region, types of lands and even the registration details of the people who own the lands. Also, there could be a travel portal informing the users about the different attractions of a place.
4. Company-specific portals: If there is a large organization spread over different locations, it could develop a web portal for its employees for their better communication or for sharing enterprise-wide information from a single platform. This is also called an enterprise portal.
5. Networking portals: It is quite common to find groups of people coming together for some common cause or interest. Broadly, there are two online communities, social and professional. A social networking portal aims greater interaction and sharing among the people have some things in common. These could be common interests, likings, common classes, schools and colleges as well as common places of residence and work. Similarly, the professional networking portals enable professional interaction among the providers and the buyers.
As the number of services, products and their providers grow, it often becomes difficult for a person to find them at one place. A web portal can provide the ideal platform for meeting this requirement saving the time and effort of people to search for different things on different websites. Sensing this need of the people, a number of portals based on varied themes have come up in recent times. Besides, the portals provide a number of independent services such as authenticity and verification of the providers which could be of good use to the users of the portals.

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