The Portal is Dead

so what of the providers

[ukgimp]

media guardian [media.guardian.co.uk]

Another portal is dead article. I question their feedback demographics. It is a little like asking us lot about what we think of google and assuming that is representative of Mr Joe Schmo Average Surfer.

[Brad]

I don't think the portal is dead, I just think it has consolidated down to several providers (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, etc.) I use My Yahoo as my start page so I can scan headlines while downloading all the spam and virus emails that have loaded up my accouunts. ;)

As for the ISP portals, for a small ISP I think you just want some good basic info about the internet for beginners. Perhaps a web search, anti-virus news, and links to some basic downloads like alternate email clients, anti-virus programs, browsers etc. You want to create a balance of providing some nice basic services and guidance for new people that will use the ISP portal for months before finding something better and at the same time recognize that eventually many will move on to Yahoo and the like so don't spend too much money on the service.

[claus]

Portals are still alive, afaik. There's a bit more focus on content providers and less do-it-yourself than a few years ago, as the other approach was very costly. For ISP's portals are "kind-of" customer service costs, for "pure portals"... well, all they have is costs it seems. Still, some of them do have some income as well. I'm sure consolidation is not over yet.

/claus