horizontal portal
n. An Internet portal site that offers a broad range of content and services.
Examples
1999
Sites like Excite, Netcenter, and Yahoo! appeal to a much broader audience base and are considered horizontal portals.
—Jim Lynch, “What Makes a Great Portal,” PC Magazine, March 01, 1999
1999
Alarmed by the arrival of internet upstarts, offline companies are defending their turf. WW Grainger, a distributor of maintenance, repair and operating supplies with 1998 sales of $US4.3 billion, last week opened a beachhead on the internet called OrderZone.com, promising "hundreds of thousands" of commercial supplies from companies such as stationer Corporate Express, Lab Safety Supply and VWR Scientific Products.

"Grainger wants OrderZone.com to be a horizontal portal for procurement people," Mr Keenan said.
—David Crowe, “Net boom finds a new niche,” Australian Financial Review, February 15, 1999
1998 (earliest)
Executives from Animalhouse.com, Deja News, and Epicentric made a strong case that as the Web evolves users will migrate from horizontal portals such as Yahoo, Excite, Infoseek, and Lycos to more specialized vertical sites.
—“Red Herring's First-Annual NDA Conference Brings Together 'Next Generation' CEOs,” PR Newswire, November 10, 1998
Filed Under
internet
Posted: March 28, 1999