Welcome To The New ChannelWeb

We've rebuilt our web pages, taking down the left hand navigation and replacing it with a more dynamic top menu. We'll take advantage of the additional space to provide more graphics, relevant links and new tools on each page. At the same time, we hope you'll find the sites quicker and easier to navigate.

With 'FindChannel' links, available from the top menu bars, we're putting a new spin on our News Centers, adding in coverage from around CMP Media's network of over 150 technology and business websites.

Our last major web redesign was five years ago. Actually, our last two major web redesigns were five years ago. In July of 2000, we unveiled a dynamic new site with significant page-level coding to hide and display content, provide navigation and create an immersive user experience. It was really cool. It didn't work.

Two months later, we had stripped out the most problematic elements, nailed our navigation to the left side of the page and relaunched in barebones style.

And then the last five years happened. Our sites grew, adding content and new features, straining the bounds of the design. At the same time, we were occupied with deploying those new tools, with a major behind-the-scenes web platform change, and with all the daily drama of a full time news operation.

Something else happened, too. Browsers grew up. Javascript and Cascading Style Sheet support became became nearly universal, and those dynamic elements that took so much effort five years ago became, well, reasonable, in terms of development, maintainability and ease of use for the reader.

So it was time to change. We targeted summer, the "quietest" time of year, to do the work, and gave ourselves a healthy lead time to get the sites live before XChange 05, one of our most important events of the year, and our best opportunity to get feedback on the sites from solution providers. We just made it.

But with all that, our efforts are still a work in progress. In particular, we expect to roll out a number of new tools over the next couple months, and to continue to refine the design. But as always, we aim to be your top web destination for channel business and technology news and analysis, interactive tools and a web community focused specifically on the channel.

Let us know what you think. Email me at [email protected], or sound off now in our Discussion Forums.