If you use the Internet, chances are you go to one of the major Web pages—Netscape, Microsoft Network, Yahoo, or AOL—as your default base of operations. Every time you fire up your browser, you are led automatically to a page that offers you a wide variety of choices, many of which do violent battle for your attention by flashing, hopping around, changing colors, or doing strange and provocative things. Well, we’d like to suggest that the next time you visit the Web, you come check out our totally revamped online presence at www.gradingandexcavation.net and see what we have to offer in the way of useful, industry-related, full-featured, and rapid-loading options. Be prepared for the shock of beginning your session without the distraction of gimmicks designed to lure and snare the unwary. In a day when Web sites seem to be vying with one another to see who can be the glitziest, it might appear that we are shoveling sand against the tide…but it’s to a purpose.
Getting Off to a Flying Start
In redesigning our site, we asked our readers what was important and what features they would like. They responded, “fast-loading and uncluttered” and suggested industry news, regulatory updates, calendar of events, useful links to other sites, and editorial materials of various kinds. It should come as no surprise that these features now lie at the heart of the site. But there’s more.
We’ve added several components to broaden the site’s appeal: loads of content that we can’t squeeze into the print version of Grading & Excavation Contractor; news from around the world—presently 69 news sources in 25 countries—to keep you abreast of business, environmental, and political activities as reported in those regions; weather sites with the ability to provide meteorological data of nearly any level of detail; buyer and seller listings of grading and excavation–related products, used equipment, and professional services; an employment center for job prospectors and prospects alike; and a classified advertising section for catch-all items. Then there is a full range of subscriber, advertiser, and visitor services having to do with editorial activities, advertising and business opportunities, information and archive searches, and feedback links to let us know how we’re doing. If it has to do with grading and excavation, you’ll find it here.
Take Advantage of a New Feature
Shop Talk is one of the more powerful features of our whole Web experience. Get together with other professionals to raise concerns, ask for help, provide assistance, and discuss issues relevant to the field. To join, click the button “Join Shop Talk” located on the Grading & Excavation Contractor home page and follow the instructions.
What the Future Holds
We intend to push the envelope to make our site not just the best in the industry, but the one you adopt as your home site. To do this, however, we need your help in such matters as information-gathering, feedback, Shop Talk participation, and even censure. For it to be a true success, it has to be much more than the Web site for Grading & Excavation Contractor magazine. It needs to be your site—everyone with a stake in grading and excavation matters—and for this to happen, you need to pitch in and help.
