iGoogle is a great portal, a web page that acts as a window onto the web.
Using iGoogle, I can access all of my important information with a single click. My Gmail and appointments, my To-do list, my RSS reader, even a quote for the day. I leave this open on my desktop all day long, and use it as my channel to the web. You sign up for Google, and you can make a page just as you want to. If you want to change the layout, just move the parts with your mouse.