Re: UKNM: Re: Portals?

[Phil Gyford]

At 10:39 21/08/98 +0100, you wrote:

>Okay, but as so many individual sites provide these services anyway, you

>can see what I mean about bookmarks being an easy alternative to finding a

>portal site that actually fits your personal needs precisely. 


But they're completely different things and few, if any, people are going

to find a site which replaces the need for bookmarks. One of the most

pointless customisable features on such sites is the 'My favourite links'

section.


Portals are trying to provide so much (possibly too much) more than a

directroy service. Whether it makes sense to lump all these things together

is another matter. 


>Just looking at my bookmarks, I've got my favourite second-hand record

>store, some realaudio sites I like to listen to, Amazon, ZDnet, Leeds

>United, Hotmail, CNN, MR. Slappy's punishment dungeon, the usual stuff. 

>I can bookmark sites which I have already set my preferences for, and get

>the personalised content I'm after. 

>

>I agree that there are many, many folk out there who will never sort out

>and actually use their bookmarks, but I think there's a fair overlap with

>people who won't use/find portals, or who wouldn't dream of being as

>pro-active as to install a plug-in. I think these are probably the same

>people who will look at the front page of yahoo and never touch any of the

>news/weather/stock quotes/anything else but the search.


I tend to disagree. I know people who I wouldn't describe as net savvy who

get a real kick out of starting up to Excite's peronalised page (or

whatever), whereas those who have been around longer really can't be arsed

with such nonsense, and no where to go for what they want.


But this is getting off the point I originally started arguing (what does

'portal' mean?) onto whether they're any use. So I'll leave it.



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     Phil Gyford                                       w:0171.766.6491

     Deputy Editor                                     h:0171.622.9058

     Capital Interactive

philgyford [dot] com

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