What's being assessed? Layout? Content? Online services offered?

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

It's about the concept of E-Government:
Ease of access to information; ability to do government business on line (licenses, fees); agendas & minutes of meetings; webcasts of meetings; webcast archives; opportunity to participate in government by joining advisory boards; details of resolutions and budgets; citizen opinion surveys/feedback.

Also note the number of elected officials and whether they are elected by their district or the county at-large.

Boring, but efficient. Like looking at a table full of businessmen all dressed alike. I liked ours a bit more than the others. Richland County's was the ugliest. I like our color, the well written drop-down menus, the mixture of neighborhood events and news along with the legislative stuff. I've used our site many times, even before I moved here to research what my new environment would be like, and I found it very easy to navigate, inclusive, and informative.

I felt after examining them all that it would have been more inviting if each one had a large picture of a city street or country shot, to show visitors to the site what kind of place it is. Some of the sites used the small non-descript banners across the top to give a peek of the landscape or a city view. That wasn't very appeaking.

I agree that both the Knoxville and Knox county websites look similar but I see it as more of an advantage than disadvantage. I've used each website many times and found that both were very resourceful. Got no complaints from me.

Adrift in the Sea of Humility

The prominent search box is good. If your content is optimized that is a huge plus for your users. Probably the most powerful navigational tool or a large, site with diveergent content. Usually I just type what I am looking for in a search box and do not fool with drop down menus.
I would lose the drop down menus.

Only if it works and this morning I'm not having much luck searching for the county charter. Tried it the hard way first by clicking through the menus and never did find it. Could be because the coffee is in the kitchen and I'm at my computer. Has anyone found the charter online?

Otherwise, excellent comments jbr.

The one good thing about being pessimistic is - at least it shows you understand the situation. -- Unknown

After just a quick look at each site, here are some observations.

Most sites offer the same basic type of information and services. As noted above, some present it better than others, and some are easier to navigate than others.

Some things that caught my eye and that distinguish some of the sites from Knox County's are:

• Prominent links to local ordinances, codes, regulations, etc.

• Easy to search property records with essential info presented in an understandable format

• Up to date, easy to find meeting agendas and minutes

• Public access TV schedules for meetings, and live streaming of broadcasts on some websites

Couple more things.

• A few of the sites have a "most viewed/requested pages/links" feature on the front page. This is a nice, useful feature.

• Way too much use of PDF format documents on most every website.

Another interesting quick survey re. visible links to election/voting info on the front page:

• Ann Arundel: none

• Baltimore: permanetn link to election info page

• Chesterfield: temporary news item about results of recent primary

• Cobb: none

• Baton Rouge: temporary news item about voter registration drive

• Lexington: none

• Polk: none

• Richland: none

• Sarasota: permanent link to election info page

• Knox: none

So only two websites had permanent links to election/voter info on the front page. None had a direct, permanent, visible link to voter registration info.

One other observation about Knox County's website: It's more like a campaign flyer or PR page about Mayor Ragsdale than about Knox County.

Not one of the other websites features as much info about the county mayor/executive or as prominently.

Only if it works..."

"If your content is optimized..."

My comment had nothing to do with whether the search function is optimized or not. If you can't enter a search term, a prominent search box does little good.

Thanks for the tip on Google. The problem, however, is that when I'd like to look at the county charter, I don't want to sort through every news article or blog entry relating to the charter nor do I want to know who has a charter.net email address.

I'm not taking issue with you personally. I'd simply like to be able to find information about the county charter and the ethics committee online without hassle.