Shakespeare with Internet access might have asked instead, “What’s in a URL?” In the case of E&P’s new one, it’s a lot. Let’s face it, our old Web site address, www.eandpnet.com, was never the easiest to remember or repeat. So we are replacing it with a shiny new one: www.eandp.info.

Why should you care? As change goes, the URL replacement is pretty minor, but what happens after you click on the new one (starting Dec. 1) is a different story. We have “pressed the reset button” on our old Web site by building a new one from scratch.
Building a Web site starting with a clean sheet of paper (or a blank computer screen — you get the idea) is an interesting exercise. Fortunately, the idea of chucking the old one didn’t cause much indigestion around here, so the first major decision — to do it or not — was made easily.

The decisions that followed were the tough ones. The cause of much debate related to the three-dimensional nature of Web site navigation. Sometimes these navigation debates can give you the feeling of being either a cartographer or puppeteer as you try to decide how to lead visitors here or there on the site.

There are so many big questions in Web site development that it’s hard to say which is biggest. But right up there at the top has to be, “What is the purpose of this site?” We modestly admit to answering that one easily. The purpose of www.eandp.info is to serve you, our E&P readers and Web site visitors, by providing you with information that helps you do your job better.

Sound familiar? It should. That is the mission of E&P magazine, and we intend for the Web site and the magazine to work together in that cause. Each medium has its strengths, and we’ve had a big head start in developing the magazine. But the Web site’s time has come.
Everything fell together after we defined the site’s purpose. Even the navigation issues sorted themselves out in a way that we think makes a lot of sense. We recognize that the industry isn’t The Industry but rather a collection of groups, each with its own interests. Our goal is to create spaces that each of these groups can easily navigate to and find information and tools specific to their unique needs when they get there.

Those who enjoy completing a series of discrete tasks satisfactorily should stay away from Web site development. A site begins with version 1.0 and, if you’re serious about it, never ends. The rest of us can enjoy the work of always making it better without necessarily having to discard a lot of what’s already been done. If you could give them some kind of test for it, home remodelers would probably show the ideal disposition for this kind of work.
Anyway, we invite you to visit 1.0. Wander around and tell us what you think we should do to make it better. And by the way, we’re already working on 1.1.

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