A Web Portal also known as a links page, presents information from diverse sources in a
unified way (According to Maedche A et.al (2002)). A portal makes network resources (application, database, etc.) available to end users and the user can access the portal via Web browser and other devices. Web portal is a customized website that immerses information from a wide array of sources in a consistent and uniformed manner. Where a website is accessible over the internet or a private network such as Local Area Network (LAN) through an address known as Uniform Resource Locator (URL). For Web Portal personal login is required whereas for Web site no login required.
A service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a style of software design where services are provided to the other components by application components, through a communication protocol over a network. The SOA architecture design provides a framework for integrating separate applications so that from the network to access its features, which are offered as services. The primary benefit of SOA is that they make services interoperable, which means that services can communicate with one another, even if each implementation is written in a different computer language or is accessed by way of a different transport protocol (software that oversees the runtime transmission of data).
Improvement in Website Design: Web portal development mainly focuses on improving the look and feel of a website. It uses several communication strategies for executing and transferring data. The development process involves various components or sections such as layout, shell, page, book, menu and placeholder. These components facilitate the sharing of quality information on a website.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PORTALS
There are several kinds of portals:
Vertical Portals: Provide access to a variety of information and services about a particular area of interest. For example, http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/paper/researchpaper.html is a vertical portal.
Horizontal Portals: Often referred to as “megapor-tals,” target the entire Internet community. Sites such as http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/index.html. This sites provide the ability for a user to personalize the page by offering various information (i.e., access to other information such as course updates, reports etc.). Providers of mega portals hope individual users go to their sites first to access the rest of the Internet. These are portals developed and maintained for use by members of the intranet or the enterprise network.
Knowledge Portals: Knowledge portals increase the effectiveness of knowledge workers by providing easy access to information that is necessary or helpful to them in one or more specific roles.