It is the Brazilian government website. It features information on legislation, culture and citizenship for both Brazilians and foreigners.

For Brazilian citizens, Portal Brazil is a single platform of information designed to promote social inclusion, foster citizen rights and provide access to services and information. It aims to provide easier access to public services and enable greater participation of society in its content. Portal Brazil is a single source for all relevant public service information gathered from the different websites of ministries, news agencies and other federal bodies.

For audiences abroad, the English and Spanish versions of the portal feature information on the country, including competitive strengths. The Portal offers relevant information for overseas investors, foreign expatriates, tourists, journalists, scholars and researchers.

Visitors can browse the Portal Brazil along three lines:

• Brazil FOR: targets a specific audience.
• ABOUT Brazil: centers on issues
• Browse BY: focuses on formats

Users with multiple interests may browse along a profile they find similar to their own, or choose their subject of interest, or even content formats (audio, video, images etc.). Though generally presenting the navigation paths above, the website also offers cross references from different areas for a broader, more comprehensive view of the content.

For example: Users browsing the Entrepreneur profile may also find information on citizen rights and education.

For friendly, efficient navigation, citizens and visitors are welcomed in so-called reception areas or home pages by themes or profiles directing users to the appropriate government bodies as they enter a different level of navigation. The reception areas Brazil FOR and ABOUT Brazil are useful for citizens and visitors interested in information about the country.

The reception areas enable users to find the information they are looking for in a specific environment. With an attractive layout and intuitive navigation, the reception areas provide user-friendly access to information, news and services from different government bodies.

The standard resolution 1024 pixels (width) enables full page view.

For lower resolutions, use the sideways scroll bar to view any information not shown on screen.

Accessibility is the term used to indicate that any individual should be able to enjoy all the benefits of life within society, including the use of the Internet. It stands for unrestricted access to products, services and information.

To ensure that citizen with special needs have full access to the contents available within the electronic public administration network, federal decree 5296 published in December 2004 makes accessibility mandatory for all Brazilian government web portals and sites.

The Accessibility Model of Electronic Government (e-MAG) is a set of accessibility recommendations,  a common standard for easier implementation in Brazilian government sites and portals follows.

Portal Brazil was designed based on this set of standards ruling accessibility in government websites.
 

After signing in, users can track their interactions in a large panel called Brazil Panel.

The area is fully personalized, with each user’s Favorites, comments published, messages and content suggested to the collaborative areas in the section Join the Portal.

At a single click, users can view all their former navigation and interactions within the Portal. 

Portal Brazil was created to bring together in a single environment all the content already available to citizens in different sites of the federal government. Another objective is to foster collaboration between citizens and the government in shaping the environment. To that end, Portal Brazil offers collaborative channels for registered users. 

The section Join the Portal invites users to send messages, questions, suggestions, complaints and comments. The most frequent questions will be addressed by Portal administrators.

At other areas of the Portal, users can also post images on the collaborative photo galleries.

"Report Error" is a functionality that enables visitors to point out any disparities found in content.

Users can also share content with friends, choose RSS feeds and add pages to My Bookmarks at the Brazil Panel.

Two types of search are offered.

The first is a simple search for any term, as usual in popular search engines.
The advanced search option allows users to combine words, and to search in specific sections and categories, further refining the search. This type of search will return fewer hits, yet they will be closer to the desired information.

This accessibility tool is useful for users who rely on the keyboard. It skips items and takes the visitor directly to the desired content. It saves time by not loading headers, banners and other elements.

Accessibility to the Internet means enabling access to all. It means creating or adapting web pages to make them accessible to a larger number of users, including people with special needs.

To meet the needs of the visually impaired, this functionality enables changes in text and background colors to make content more visible and easier to locate.

The following can be used: Internet Explorer 6 or more recent; Mozilla Firefox 1.5 or more recent ; and Google Chrome.

Click on SIGN IN at the top of the menu and fill in the fields indicated.

Registration is simple and fast, and it allows users to start participating in the portal straight away.

After signing in, just access the specific area in My Brazil and subscribe to the desired newsletters.

You can still have access, since all contents have an HTML version for faster reading. You can also install Flash for free by clicking here.

At the bottom of the pages, click on "Submit your opinion” and use the form to write your message. Remember that you must be signed in at My Brazil to post any collaboration.

All pages have a “Report Error” form. Fill in the form and the information will be sent to our consultants, who will make corrections if necessary. Errors can only be reported by registered users.

This tool is called a tag cloud. It helps identify the most popular contents and the keywords of the subjects found in the Portal.

RSS is a XML feature administrators of sites and blogs use to publish updates. Users can subscribe to the RSS of a site and the information will the sent as a summary in files using .xml, .rss ou .rdf extensions. This type of file is called an RSS feed.

What do I need to subscribe to an RSS ?

Include the address of the feed in a program called RSS reader (or agregator).  This program will read the content of the listed feeds and show it on its interface for fast and easy access, so you do not need to access the original content provider to read each new posting.

Do I have to pay for this ?
No. RSS services and readers are free and easily found on the web. Ask your friends about the models and choose the one that best suits you.

Images must be in JPG format, up to 2 Mb. A maximum of 10 photos can be uploaded per day.

Yes. Some pages are meant exclusively for audiences abroad, with information for investors, students, visitors and expatriate professionals. Other pages are exclusive for Brazilian citizens.

Yes. Although much of the information is similar and interconnected, some content is specific to each area.

Brazil FOR presents content segmented by interested groups like citizens, students, entrepreneurs, professionals, investors, visitors and press.  

ABOUT Brazil brings more general content on a certain subject. This area features news, institutional or educational information on different topics.