The portal design seems to solve a problem the web had in it&#x27;s infancy: &quot;How do I do X?&quot;<p>It seems like the problems then were more geared towards finding anything that accomplished the given goal. Whereas modern web users are spoiled for choice and can afford to pick best in breed.<p>I think no one would use Google search if it were bundled with G+. No offense to G+, but it&#x27;s an inferior network&#x2F;product compared to the alternatives. Users <i>do</i> use Google search, or Youtube, or whatever because they are severable from their companies&#x27; ecosystems.<p>There&#x27;s probably also a huge ancillary benefit to corporate structure and development flexibility when your authority&#x2F;responibility is silo&#x27;d by end user functionality.<p>(Counterpoint: Bill Gate&#x27;s infamous flame on the Windows Media Player update experience, whereas it was revealed that the user experience for updating a piece of software cut across three or four different departments)