But other types of portals must entice visitors to become members. Once a visitor becomes a member, the act of logging in identifies an individual to the portal as a member of the community. To encourage membership, the portal offers additional features or services that are not available to the general surfing public. Communication and collaboration functions such as discussion forums, free e-mail and chat areas are the most common services offered. In addition, secure services such as a personal calendar, address book, a database of personal health records, or account information allow members to retain individual, private information online and accessible from any Internet-connected computer.
Most portals allow individuals to personalize their view of the portal.
Channels such as sports, news, weather, and stock news can be edited to provide the content of most interest. In some cases, colors and the layout of the channel windows can be altered. Of course, these examples are consumer portals where membership is voluntary but they have many of the characteristics expected of any portal. In general, consumer portals have a subset of the characteristics required of an enterprise portal. In particular, document management is a feature required in an enterprise portal and almost never found in the consumer version.