vertical portal

A portal that caters to consumers within a particular industry, sometimes called a "vertical industry". Vertical portals, also called "vortals," use Internet technology to offer the same kind of personalization tools that portals do. Another kind of vortal caters solely to other businesses rather than to an industry's consumers.

The B2C portal gave the B2B industry a model to work from, and now, most business-to-business sites bill themselves as portals. We like to define business-to-business sites as vertical portals because they deliver content and services focused on their particular niche.

The term "portal" keeps morphing because although many sites call themselves portals they are, in fact, simply Web sites that use cookie and/or personalization technology (see: personalize).

The two essential components of a vertical portal are that it uses this kind of technology and caters to a specific industry. The two essential components of a regular portal are that it uses this kind of technology and provides a variety of news, media, and services.