What is a portal?

Can someone explain what exactly a portal is? I "think" I know, but I'm not sure. Thanks a lot!

 

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/internetaccessbestuses/l/aa011900a.htm

 

a portal can be a lot of things.

the yahoo homepage is a portal.

you could also have a portal for the city of manhattan.

or it could be a 'knitting portal'

it is just a basic jumping off point for users to find information...an aggregation of resources about a certain topic, place etc...

portals generally have lots of links.

 

A portal can be a place where you can find a lot of things about one subject or a place where you find a lot of things about many subjects. (not very helpful, but true)

 

Ask Google what a portal is
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:portal

 

Okay, thanks so much for the answers. I have another question....

I would like to have, what I guess is, a portal on my main page of my website. I want the portal to show my forum. Does that make sense? How can I do this? My forum is hosted by createmybb.com. Is it possible to do this???

 

sounds like you'd need a plugin made for your website software that shows "recent posts" or whatever. If they have a support forum, ask if there is such a plugin available.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. Plugin. Not portal... lol I'll have to check and see what there is if anything (which is doubtful.....).

Thanks a lot!