Abstract

The evolution of subject portals is described, from their origins in the late 1990s (the era of Yahoo directory, Altavista and other search engines that did not use link analysis) until the present, with a detailed analysis of Intute, the best example of the state of the art. The objective is to determine the role of subject portals in the postmodern era of searching, which is characterized by the intensive use of search engines based on lynk analysis (e.g., Google). The conclusion is that subject portals have a reference and orientation role and are especially focused on the education sector (school and university students).