MPPSC 2018 Prelims Paper-I · Question 75 of 100

Correct — B, Portal. A web portal is a website that brings many services together behind one gateway — search, e-mail, news, stock prices, weather, sports and entertainment (e.g., Yahoo, MSN, Rediff). It acts as a single entry point to a wide range of online content and services.

• (a)Hostel — A hostel is a lodging/accommodation place — unrelated to web services.
• (c)Article — An article is a single piece of writing on one topic; it does not aggregate services such as e-mail, search or weather.
• (d)Newspaper — A newspaper delivers news, but it does not bundle search, e-mail, stock prices and other interactive web services the way a portal does.

A web portal is a single online gateway that aggregates content and services from many sources into one place. Rather than doing one thing, it bundles search, mail, news, weather, finance, sports and entertainment so users can start their web session from one hub. Classic examples include Yahoo, MSN, Rediff and AOL.

'Newspaper' is the tempting wrong answer because news is one of the listed services. But only a portal offers the whole set — search, e-mail, weather, stock quotes, sports and more — behind one gateway. The clue in the question is the breadth and variety of services, which points to an aggregator, i.e., a portal.

• A web portal = a single gateway aggregating many services and content.
• Typical services: search, e-mail, news, weather, stock quotes, sports, entertainment.
• Classic examples: Yahoo, MSN, Rediff, AOL.
• Governments run portals too — e.g., the National Portal of India (india.gov.in).

• Choosing 'Newspaper' because news is one of the listed services
• Confusing a portal (an aggregator of services) with a search engine (one service)

Asked as a definition — 'which offers search, e-mail, news, weather...'. Lock: the aggregator of many services is a web portal (Yahoo, MSN, Rediff).

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Yahoo and Rediff, which offer search, e-mail, news and weather in one place, are examples of a:

  • (a)web browser
  • (b)search-only tool
  • (c)web portal
  • (d)web server

  Answer(c) web portal — a gateway aggregating many services.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The 'National Portal of India' (india.gov.in) is best described as a:

  • (a)single news article
  • (b)government web portal aggregating services and information
  • (c)web browser
  • (d)social network

  Answer(b) a government web portal that aggregates services and information.