Websites, Portals, Mashups & RIA’s – What’s the difference?
Many times I am asked by clients the question what is the difference between a Portal and Website? What is a mashup ? What is a Rich Internet Application ? At a high level there are a few minor differences between portals and websites. A Portal is a Website which provides a single entry point for information and applications and provides a capability of personalizing the end user experience. Not all Websites are Portals and not all Portals necessarily have to be Websites. For example mostly all company websites are mostly static and are not Portals while all Consumer sites like Yahoo, Google, AOL, MSN, Amazon, eBay are Website Portals. We often use tools like Windows Media Player and iTunes which are examples of media portals on your desktop/laptop and organize digital media content for easier access. A Mashup is a application which provides valuable information/transaction capability by utlizing the services on the cloud. A RIA is Rich Internet Applications which provides richer and more interactive End-user Experience.
· Portals typically aggregate information from multiple different sources (Information from other websites, Databases, applications).
· Websites are mostly static and provide content information which is authored by multiple authors and is organized for easier navigation.
· Most portals require you to authenticate and most Websites all unauthenticated access to information
· Most e-commerce sites are Portals.
· All Portals have some transaction capability while most Websites typically are non transactional and information only.
· Websites enabled with Web Content Management are not necessarily Portals.
· Current generation Websites are also starting to provide User Participation, community and collaboration tools like discussions, reviews, ratings, blogs, wiki’s, social interaction etc. to End-users. This is Web 2.0 type Portal also called the read write web.
Over the years the Websites which are not portals will disappear as the technology matures and adoption of the online channel increases. Portals will take new forms like Mobile applications accessing services from the cloud and providing richer user experiences. This is already started with G-Phone Android and Apple iPhone Platform and Nokia’s Symbian platform. The End-user experiences are increasing becoming richer even on the Mobile platform with features like street view in the Google maps Application on the G-Phone. Next gen Websites with AJAX will adopt RIA technologies like Flex, TIBCO-GI, Ajax Toolkits will change the Portals in a big way and we may soon have to invent a new name for the portals. I have already seen many clients already adopting the RIA technologies in a big way for the Portals. There is also another new breed of Portals/Websites like http://www.housingmaps.com/ which uses mash up technology and combines services and information on the Cloud from an end-user perspective. In Conclusion, Portals are entry points for End-users which personalize and contextualize information and transactions and not necessarily a website, a mash up, an ecommerce site but a more of a concept from an End-User perspective which can be implemented in many technologies and platforms with differing functionalities. Finally, I welcome comments from the community on where you see portals concept moving and examples of new breeds of portals.
