I've always taken it to be a portion of a website that takes you onward to different areas of the website. Like, at least in Wikipedia, a portal is generally a

I've always taken it to be a portion of a website that takes you onward to different areas of the website. Like, at least in Wikipedia, a portal is generally a list of links to areas related to a topic. In sales software, a sales portal generally leads you to areas in the website like sales flows, or something else.