The county has a snazzy new website (humboldtgov.org), and you should probably bookmark that url because Humboldt gubmint’s new digital home is invisible to the Google brain. (Try a search for “Humboldt County government” and you get those impostors in Nevada and Iowa.) The county’s tech people will soon remedy that, a spokesman assures us.

After some cursory browsing, we give the redesign a thumbs-up. Peruse and see what you think. Above you’ll find a screenshot of the new homepage, and below you’ll find a press release.

The County of Humboldt recently launched its new website, which includes more interactive tools for citizens, improved site navigation, and a fresh appearance that showcases the region’s beauty. The County’s web address has also changed to www.humboldtgov.org.

“We wanted a website that would fit the needs of today’s citizen and could adjust to the needs of tomorrow,” said County Administrative Officer Phillip Smith-Hanes. “It took a lot of hard work from all of our departments, and we now have a site that both the County and the community can be proud of.”

The Board of Supervisors last July approved a contract with CivicPlus, a leading government website provider, to redesign its website following a competitive request for proposal process. This marks the first time the County is using a vendor to deliver the website and not its own staff.

By using the CivicPlus content management system, the County gains efficiency as departments can now update their own web pages for the first time. The website now features email and text alerts you can sign up for, as well as an easier, more visually appealing layout to navigate. Some additional functions of the new website include:

• Interactive maps for County facilities, parks and libraries
• Library catalog search
• Countywide and department-specific calendars of events
• Improved search function that enables you to search agendas, documents and/or web pages
• +myConnections that allows you to sign in and customize the website so it displays prominently only the information that is relevant to you
• Enhanced disaster recovery capability to keep the website online during emergencies