We often get asked why we called our company Dental Portals rather than Dental Websites. After all, our aim is to provide affordable websites for dentists so why do we use the word "portal"?

The term "portal" has been used on the Internet since the late 1990's and was first used to describe "gateway" websites which brought together various web services such as webmail, online calendars and contact lists as well as links to other websites. Google, Yahoo and the BBC are all examples of well known portals that you probably use everyday - all the mobile phone networks also have portals and many blue chip companies also use portals to share information internally and bring together customers and suppliers. Property portals such as Rightmove aggregate property listings from thousands of estate agents, resulting in content-rich websites that boast hundreds of thousands of visitors a month!