Web Portals Usher In Drive Away Business
Monday, December 11th, 2000 TechnologyThe Internet seems to be expanding around portals in a significant way. Yahoo!, possibly the king of the Internet portals, is finding ways to layer service upon service—most of them free—and providing them in a seamless front end for consumers and businesses. Even Amazon.com is becoming more of a portal as its dealmakers strike agreements with other companies to feature their shopping sites in one place. One-stop shopping, whether it involves information from Yahoo! or commerce from Amazon, is providing customer convenience and "stickiness"—a sometimes intangible ability to keep visitors returning again and again for longer and longer periods. Some interesting twists are coming from insurers, which are streamlining their processes and generating new leads through the use of insurance portals.
