Evolution of horizontal portals in the 21st century on an example of the Onet main website

Abstract

The evolution of horizontal portals in Poland has taken place in their booming years from 1996 to 2008. This article reflects upon a case of Onet.pl portal, which in that time frame has undergone an evolution process starting form a classic horizontal portal (particularly drawing an inspiration from the Yahoo! portal) to multimedia service site, effectively competing with conventional media like press and television. The article seeks to address key changes in development of design and content of the portal's main page. These changes exemplify both, a particular development direction - the direction towards a strictly news medium, and trends like personalized content and user generated content. The article argues that attempts of Onet.pl to follow the trends, such as attempts to personalize content and to build and animate online communities and use user generated content, has been turning out unsuccessful in a long time perspective.