Verity, Yahoo connect users to personalized portal

A new distribution agreement between Verity and Yahoo aims to help companies build their own intranet portals. But is it really a good fit?

As part of its Corporate Portal Guide template, Verity will provide a link to My Yahoo!'s thirteen member services, adding Internet information like news, weather and financial information.

Ron Weissman, VP of strategy, corporate development and corporate marketing at Verity, says the link to My Yahoo will help users generate a more comprehensive, robust corporate portal.

However, industry thought-leaders at the Delphi Group say a focus on Internet-based information may not be best for corporate portals.

"The working desktop will always be driven from the internal information context, not the external one," according to Delphi, due to the inherent distrust in Internet information. Internal content, on the other hand, adheres to generally accepted corporate culture and offers a context for understanding, decision and action.

While the corporate portal may incorporate a Yahoo! element, "Yahoo! can never become the working desktop," declared Delphi.