Towards a taxonomy of government webportals

Government web portals are central to governments' web strategy, yet their rationale, design and effectiveness is scarcely studied. This paper comparatively examines the hyperlink structure of the government web portals of Australia, Canada, France, UK and USA. Websites are conceptualized as operating within web and informational ecologies in which governments seek to position their portal at the center. This paper investigates the different ways governments approach this task by analyzing the various sizes and shapes of the portal in terms of webpages and hyperlinks, and the makeup of webpages externally linked from the portal. This research highlights different design approaches between information repository portals and referral portals, as well as considerable differences in the presence of social media platforms for the operation of online government, revealing an interactive webportal design. The paper provides the basis for assessing the effectiveness of different portal designs and investigating how portal designs arise out of varied government institutional settings.