Editorial

Abstract

Internet surfers wander along invisible pathways which are overrun with different web portals. These portals can be seen as a sort of showcase, a sideboard for offering information, products or services. Anyone sitting in front of a computer screen in a remote place, is constantly lured by different bright lights, flashes and sirens coming from these new stained glass windows. To this extent, internet portals act in the same way as mermaids did in The Odyssey, putting all their efforts and ingenuity into attracting internet sailors (web surfers, people who sail across the internet). The main goal of a web portal is to engage its public’s attention, and therefore, it needs to know who its public is, what they need, in what way they need it, and what they need it for. Geoportals as internet portals which offer geographical information, have the same need as other websites to know their audience. They can be seen as a display window that offers data, maps and several services associated with the world of geospatial information; and they should be able to attract the socalled web sailors by offering them what they need according to their interests and requirements