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Title:
Battle of the Portals
Review:
I'm sure that many of you will be aware of what a portal is
in Internet terms, but it is described by the authors as '… Websites that
are used as launch pads for customers looking to surf the Web' and they go on to
use AOL, Yahoo, MSN and Excite as examples. This short (110 A6 pages) book
attempts to inform the reader about portals in some depth, indicate their value
and potential future developments. This is achieved in ten chapters, covering
definitions of portals, the battle taking place between them, pocket portals and
so on. The prose is easy to read, and the entire book took me two short train
journeys to get through, so if you want a quick overview of portals you might
want to take a look it.
However, that is just about all the good things that I can
say about it. One of the authors boasts that he wrote the first draft of the
book in a week, and I have to say that I think that it shows. There are annoying
repetitions of entire phrases, sometimes on the same page, which makes it
difficult to read without a feeling of deja vu. Some basic facts are incorrect
and I'm afraid that does make me question the amount of research that was
undertaken prior to writing the book.
It is perhaps slightly unfair to criticise a short book for
being short on information, but I'm going to do so, nonetheless. The subject of
portals and E-commerce is a huge area and even a reasonably sized book would
find it difficult to do the subject justice, and one this small really has very
little hope of doing so. If it wasn't priced at £10 I might say that it's
worth a quick read, and if the text was on a website I'd certainly point it out
as a reasonable introduction to the subject area, but I'm afraid to say that as
it is I'd have to advise people to wait until something more substantial comes
out, or read up about the subject from any of the websites that provide good
factual information.
Free Pint Reviewer:
Phil Bradley is a well known trainer and speaker on matters
related to electronic publishing and the Internet. He travels widely to speak on
different aspects of the Internet and is the author of several books and columns
which cover this area. Phil is an independent Internet Consultant who runs
in-company training courses, writes and maintains websites for a number of
clients and can assist organisations in making the most of the Internet. You can
find out more about him, and read articles written by him at his website at
http://www.philb.com
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