Energy Department launches redesigned site

The Energy Department today unveiled its partially redesigned website, Energy.gov, with highlights that include links to a department blog and to agency social networking sites.

The new home page is anchored by a photo of Secretary Steven Chu with an invitation to “follow” the secretary’s page on Facebook and to offer ideas on upcoming seminars. In four hours, Chu’s page on Facebook received 59 comments in response.

The partial redesign involved substantial changes in appearance and layout along with several new features, Cammie Croft, Energy's director of new media and citizen engagement, said today.

A few bon mots on Facebook, Drupal with DOE's new media director

The next phase will involve transitioning the site's backbone to the Drupal open-source platform, which will be completed in several months, Croft said. The transition will not create major changes to the site's appearance, she said.

“We’re excited with this step forward and we know we have a lot more work to do,” Croft said. Energy.gov typically receives about 250,000 visits a week.

As part of the partial redesign, the site's Energy Blog absorbed more than 400 past entries from the EnergyEmpowers.gov site, which also had been run by the department and is no longer operating. Croft said the entries were moved to the Energy Blog to save costs and to leverage traffic from Energy.gov.

A new feature is "Vintage DOE," a series of articles, videos, photos and other media about historic aspects of the department.

In addition, the department is planning to host a series of live video Web chats with Chu on the new website, Croft said. Dates for the chats haven't been announced.