The New Website is Here, The New Website is Here!

By R. Bruce Wright, CPCU

Well, after more than a decade of muddling along with our original Website design, the time has finally arrived for a redo. The transition to our “new look” Website took place in early November of 2012 and several of you have already seen it and provided some feedback. The primary goal of the redesign was to make the site easier for you, our utility clients, to navigate, by providing a more logical layout with more intuitive, easier access to all of the resources you have had in the past. Another goal was to add a search feature to help you find any information that may be available on specific topics you may be researching. And now, at long last, it’s here. While the Synebar.com address remains the same, in the new design, a separate sub-site contains all of the resource materials for the utility program we service for Hurtado & Associates. To find that new page you can either go first to the Synebar.com home page and then simply click on the “click here” command or on the Hurtado logo, or alternatively you can navigate directly to the URL http://hurtado.synebar.com/home/. Once there, you can access the current issue of our quarterly newsletter, RE-marks, the archive of past articles, the list of training programs available for utilties, the hazard photo collection, and outside links, all by clicking on the pertinent tab on the colored bar under the illustration. Based on the early feedback, it seems we have accomplished that goal. Early reviewers have commented that the site seems “more modern,” the layout is “simpler to grasp and navigate,” and the search engine has also been well received.

While the goal was to improve your on-line experience and access to the quarterly newsletter RE-marks, the article archive, the training program descriptions and the photo archive, it will require that you make a one-time change to your bookmarks, updating to the new URL for the utility section. If you have the old program page in your bookmarks, or favorites list (Previously titled “Health and Safety Information” or whatever you changed it to when you saved it.) you should delete it. Then either cut and paste this URL http://hurtado.synebar.com/home/ into your bookmarks, or go to the page itself and select “Bookmark this page” or “add to favorites list” as you normally would so you can go there directly in the future. Of course, as was the case with this issue, a link will always be included in the email announcing each new published issue of RE-marks. If you have not already done so, please add the domain “synebar.com” to your safe senders list. Outlook users can do this by highlighting any email from us, and then by selecting “Actions/Junk Email/Add senders domain (@example.com) to safe senders list.” (If you use another email client, you may have to ask your administrator for guidance.)

One important note regarding the search feature- unfortunately the search engine provided by our Web hosting company includes paid advertising. Synebar gets no revenue from this -- it all goes to the search engine developer -- but not accepting the ads would make the search feature unaffordable. I hope everyone will understand that, and more importantly, recognize that the paid ads appear above the horizontal line, with all the Synebar Solutions search results appearing below the line, underneath the heading “site results.” Beware, anything you click on that asks you to subscribe or pay for information, publications, or services is NOT part of the Synebar site and you should hit your “back” button to return to our site! Some search engines may even warn you that you are leaving our site if you click on such a link.

Finally, as always, your input, feedback, suggestions, requests and contributions will be welcomed. Please send any of these to feedback@synebar.com or email any questions to me directly at bruce@synebar.com. I hope you will take some time to become familiar with the new site. Happy surfing!