The web portal vs. a plain search engine  Which one does the future of search belong to?   By John Bolduan RealWebMarketing.com

Do you remember when Google first came out? Those of us who had been used to a more cluttered approach to search via a web portal were stunned. Here was a search engine which simply gave you a one line search and gave back results that were better than anything that had been done before. It made the whole portal idea of the web seem a little silly. I mean when you wanted to do a search, why did you need all the other mumbo-jumbo? The fact was, that you didn't need it. It changed everything.

It brings me to talk about web portals versus a plain search engine and which way will search be heading in the future. In the very early 1990's, AOL was the king of the hill. It offered a place where you could get all sorts of information neatly organized which is what it's still like today. At the time, it still wasn't focused on the internet although you would use it for that. It had everything and created a place that you could actually find useful information. But the shine didn't last too long. Other companies like Yahoo found that they could organize the web in a way to offer  a similar experience without the high monthly cost. It worked and all of a sudden something AOL-like was being done by a lot of companies that had directories or search. That's why we still have web portals today, you can thank AOL for getting more junk information to your desktop.

What does this have to do with the state of search today? Well, there are two kinds of belief on what you should have when you search. The first is the web portal like MSN or Yahoo which are an extension of older online marketing. It gives you some internet training wheels with a good search function in the background. That's fine, but now that we've seen just a straight search, who wants to go back to all the 
other junk from a portal? The second is the straight search and it is what it is, search. It isn't very glamorous or fun, but it gets the real job done. So who wins in the future? I say neither.

Search engines are rapidly developing tools to give people a more personalized search experience. This will make things like portals even more out of date than they are already as people will be able to choose what they want and not be deluged with unwanted fluff. They will eventually change into something completely different and that won't be good for MSN or Yahoo. The personalized search will also eliminate
the need to go to a search page like Google. It will be a part of the total desktop package. So this leaves the door wide open for new technology to replace both these ways of having people search.

Of course, these are just my opinions, but I think that the next wave of search technology will change many of the preconceived notions we've had about search. I get the feeling that most people are looking for something more comprehensive and personalized in search. Yes, I think that the search giants are on the right track. I believe it will deliver, finally, the search results we want and the selection of services we prefer online.