The web design of a portal allows its users to search for different types of information in a concise way. A good portal web design will shape the user by combining features that are personal to them, such as email, news and entertainment without having to navigate too much and still keep that user working under their own profile, thus personalizing their browsing. Some web portals that most people use are Yahoo!, AOL, and Google. However, these are not the only type of portal web design available.
There are different types of portals, whether horizontal or vertical. Horizontal portals cover a wide variety of areas or serve as a platform for many similar businesses or types of manufacturing. Vertical portals are sometimes called vortals and focus on a specific area or industry niche. Also, portal design is sometimes categorized into personal, regional, and governmental.
A personal portal would specialize in a personalized path to the Internet for the visitor. This design allows the user to navigate through many types of applications and sources. This information is configured in such a way that it can be sent through most Internet devices, including personal computers, PDAs, and cell phones.
The regional portal web design is configured to provide local information to the user. Things like weather forecasts, maps, and business information are available to help the user research other areas of the world for use in eCommerce applications.
A third type of portal web design is for government research. Most industrialized countries have some kind of web portal created for their citizens to search for information. The type of search performed on these types of .gov sites includes information on health initiatives, government programs, and outreach. Additionally, there are often links on these websites to specific government agencies such as education and advocacy. Some countries have joined forces with their unions to form larger portals. For example, the European Union has a portal called Europa that provides information on topics from all over Europe.