Comparing Portals and Web Pages

A Web page (WP) is a document written in HTML or XHTML language and placed on the World Wide Web through a unique and rather permanent address called the uniform resource locator or URL. A Web page can be either a single page, or be combined with other Web pages, nested one inside the other. These multiple Web pages, once created by using frames (F), are increasingly being created through the use of cascading style sheets (CSS). These enhancements allow users to navigate content on other Web pages while remaining on the initial page. Web pages contain navigation links (NL) to other Web sites and are viewed through Web browsers. Web pages can also contain elements that can be seen (graphics and images) and cannot be seen (scripts, meta tags). A Web site (WS) is physically located on a Web server as a collection of Web pages stored in hierarchical folders. Users move from page to page through use of these navigation links, navigation bars, or hyper links (HL) to view additional pages. Even so, Web pages are relatively flat or static when compared to the more functional and complex portal. A portal (P), is a Web site that serves as a gateway to other resources (Internet or intranet). These resources provide the user with enhanced capabilities through the use of distributed means—computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones. Therefore, some would argue that the portal is nothing new, but yet another type of Web page. Others (Tatnall, 2005) argue that portals are more than Web pages. At the very least, portals are enhanced versions—powerful improvements—along the evolutionary development of the simple Web page. Portals have proliferated. Tatnall (2005) describes attempts to categorize them and provides a list of major types: (a) general portals, (b) vertical industry portals, (c) horizontal industry portals, (d) community portals, (e) enterprise information portals, (f) e-market place portals, (g) personal/mobile portals, (h) informational portals, and (i) specialized or niche portals. While some have proclaimed the death of the portal (Online Publishing News, 1999), others (White, 2003) write about portal metamorphosis, an evolving transformation of the simple Web page in response to user needs.