Portals are the latest Web craze in the news daily as objects of mergers and acquisitions.
They're the first page you see when you connect to the Net. Portals are the ABCs, CBSs and NBCs of the Web the most fought-over territory in the Net gold rush. Sites such as Yahoo and Excite were once pitched as places for nonexperts to find things on the Internet. They're still that, as well as search engines and directories. But they're quickly evolving into full-service hubs of electronic commerce, mail, online communities and customized news.