Portals in Consumer Search Behavior and Product Customization

Abstract

A portal is defined as an entrance point to online content. The portal concept has evolved across a number of markets and applications. Customer portals focus on individual customer and offer a one-stop Internet access. By providing a number of services, such as searches, shopping, e-mail, and games, portals allow individuals to avoid browsing the Web but to in-fact rely and stay at one Web site like a one-stop shop. Accordingly, portals drive eyeballs, and hence create and drive advertising revenue and alliances. The concept of a single public port to given content on the Internet is used as a means of pulling in a large number of users. As an example, America Online (AOL) acts as a portal site to general Web content. It is a specialized portal created by AOL and also has content from partners such as Time Warner (Kleindl, 2003). This article reviews the role of portals in