Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC February 3, 2006 U.S. State Department To Launch New Website DesignThe Department of State is updating its main website at www.state.gov to improve usability and increase awareness of important news items. The new design streamlines the number of content sections from nine to four: Issues and Press, Travel and Business, Youth and Education, and About the State Department. The redesigned homepage will feature the main news story of the day, along with other important news. The homepage also will provide easy access to information about Secretary Rice, multimedia resources, and interactive options for users to subscribe to state.gov content as well as quick links to key topics in each of the website sections. In addition to state.gov homepage updates, the banner of the new design will link to the top news story, daily press briefings, and other news from anywhere in the website. Enhanced search capabilities will allow users to search individual sections of the website, rather than the entire site. An important resource for the public, journalists, academia, and the foreign affairs community with some 11 million hits per month, www.state.gov continues to keep pace with new technologies (enhanced content management system, podcasts, RSS news feeds, listservs, etc). Additional enhancements are planned for http://www.state.gov in the future. Our goal is to increase public understanding of foreign policy issues through timely online multimedia features (i.e. video, audio, and text) offering the latest breaking news directly from the State Department. Contact: Colleen Hope, Director, Office of Electronic Information 703-875-5085 or online at http://contact-us.state.gov/. |