PORTAL

One of the major Web gateways with millions of daily visitors, such as AOL or Yahoo . Attempting to be the Internet's equivalent of television networks, these Web sites typically aggregate similar content from a variety of similar sources and combine them with similar user features -- searching, free e-mail accounts, chat, etc. They also strike similarly lucrative e-commerce deals with commercial Web sites to link to their services throughout the portal site. Follows the wisdom that you must buy significant Web traffic. See also affiliate program and vertical portal .