Once upon a time, a company named Yahoo! found its core value proposition: providing a browseable and searchable directory of the Internet. Later, it tried to cement its position as launch pad for the Internet by adding e-mail, contacts, and other handy tools.

Other search sites made it feel vulnerable, and people started talking about portals. "The [portals] future of the [portals] Internet is portals," the experts said. "Portals portals portals. And, to sum up, portals."