Internet portals are intended to entice people to use the site as the main entry point into the Internet. As a consequence, all of these gateway sites are heavily commercial and very cluttered with "content". The portals listed below have various amounts of Canadian information. A problem facing Canadian-based portals is that they might not have the deep pockets of their foreign-based rivals. As with other aspects of the Internet, there will be shakeouts. Since these sites have numerous features, this description concentrates on their searching capabilities.

"Yahoo! Canada" (Last examined on 8/10/01)

The Canadian component of the Silicon Valley-based Yahoo! Empire (which has British Columbia native Jeffrey Mallett as its Chief Operating Officer), this gateway shares the features and operating philosophy of its parent: "connect people with information. " As its p.r. states, Yahoo! started as "a fun way to collect our favourite sites" and "has blossomed into a network of directories and features and news feeds, including everything from sports scores and live chats to the latest in online shopping…" The resulting product is menu driven, very busy, and incredibly non-linear.

Searching is fairly straightforward with options for more sophistication. Its "help" instructions are very detailed and actually useful. The Basic Search has options for "All Sites" and "Canadian Sites Only." Searching results are divided into "Category Matches" (which "can yield hundreds or even thousands of relevant web sites" and "Site Matches" (listings of individual sites). The basic categories are:

Arts & Humanities	News & Media
Business & Economy	Reference
Computers & Internet	Regional
Education	Science
Entertainment	Social Science
Government	Society & Culture
Health

Canada.com (Last examined on 6/10/01)

This gateway, produced by the Southam newspapers group, tries to provide "a full service portal for personalized information and services including travel, autos, careers, finance, free e-mail, news, shopping, sports, a business and people directory - and more." With a Canadian emphasis, more or less. Its home page is less cluttered than Yahoo! Canada.

The search engine has options for searching the Entire Web, Canadian sites (i.e., those ending with ".ca" which means that Canadian sites ending in other suffixes won't be picked up), news stories (from the Canadian Press newsier service), and directories which has options for "English Canada," "Français Canada," and "The World":

English Canada/ The World	Français Canada
Automotive	Achats et services
Business & Finance	Actualité et médias
Computers & Internet	Arts et culture
Entertainment & Media	Divertis/Bavardage
Health & Fitness	Économie et commerce
Hobbies & Interests	Éducation et emploi
Home & Family	Famille et foyer
People & Chat	Informatique et Net
Reference & Education	Référence et sciences
Shopping & Services	Santé et bonne forme
Society & Politics	Société et politique
Sports & Recreation	Sports et plein air
Travel & Vacations	Voyages et transports

There are also Business and People finders as well as a fairly sophisticated and easy-to-use "Super Search."

Sympatico (Last examined on 6/10/01)

This site bills itself as "Where Canadians Come First". It consistently ranks as one of the sites by most visited Canadians. An alliance in 2000 with U.S.-based Lycos has enhanced its competitive position. Its advanced search engine is fairly straightforward with a number of useful drop-down options. Of particular interest are the "Adult Content Filter (Reduces pornographic content of search results when checked.)" and the "Canada 411" person/business finder. Its search categories are:

Automotive	Kids + Teens
Careers	News
Computers + Net	Personal Finance
Entertainment	Shopping
Government	Small Business
Health	Sports
Home + Family	Travel
Local

Despite its affiliation with Lycos, Sympatico appears to have links to primarily Canadian sites.

Canoe (Last examined on 6/10/01)

There's a group of Canadian nationalists who contend that the canoe is the true symbol of Canada; this portal aims to bind Canadians together the way the watercraft purportedly did. Like its rivals, Canoe has a number of news (provided by the Sun Group of newspapers) and lifestyle features. Of particular interest are its "Kids Click," "Canadian Parents Online," and "HistoryLands" (which is a spin-off of a television series on Canada's Heritage Sites). Its "Compass Canoe" search engine lacks the sophistication of its competitors. There is no Boolean-type (I.E., "AND," "or," not") searching nor does it have the broad categories of information.