Cyberspace: Star Wars

The gravitational pull of a handful of big Web portals is reshaping cyberspace

PORTAL Q&A;

--WHAT IS A PORTAL? A portal is a Web supersite offering news, e-mail, search and shopping services that users pass through on their way to other sites

--HOW DO I FIND ONE? When you start your Web browser, you are automatically connected to a portal (usually Netscape's or Microsoft's). Enter the address of a portal you want to visit (say, yahoo.com) and hit return

--WHICH PORTAL IS BEST FOR ME? Different strokes for different folks. Yahoo is built around a directory; Excite and Lycos have strong search engines; Microsoft's emphasizes commerce

AOL & NETSCAPE

--48.5 MILLION SERVED

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