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SALT LAKE CITY -- For the second time in just nine weeks, the LDS Church is trotting out a revamped version of one of its primary Internet sites.
In July, mormon.org got an extreme makeover, as the Church's introductory site on the World Wide Web took on a new collective face provided by personal profiles from Mormons all across the globe.
And Wednesday at noon, the "new and improved" label was passed on to lds.org — the official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For the record, lds.org is still its same, familiar self. After months of beta testing, the updated version — new.lds.org — is available to the public at its own separate URL; the new version will move over to lds.org at a yet-to-be-determined date.
The new.lds.org site is so new that it's really a work in progress, with some features and elements still being developed and others yet to come.
"With this version, we wanted to get the features online, get them out there and then adjust them as we receive feedback," said Joel Dehlin, the church's chief information officer.
The revision is the most extensive updating of lds.org in a decade, with major renovations in content management, processing and online appearance.
One improved feature is the new site's search capabilities — Dehlin said users previously had joked that if they wanted to search lds.org, they'd use Google rather than the old site's own search options.
Other new highlights include a richer multimedia experience involving more videos, audios and images; integration with e-mail and popular social networking sites; and a online study experience where a user with an LDS account log-on can mark online scriptures or reference materials and save them in an online journal with one's own tags.
A month from now, those user-unique online tags are expected to be synchronized for availability on the user's mobile device, Dehlin said.
The new version continues the site's purpose — to provide access to Church doctrine, leaders' teachings, LDS scriptures and gospel material.
The new.lds.org home page includes two regular elements — "What Do Mormons Believe" can link users to the mormon.org site, while "The Prophets and Apostles Speak Today" provides access to messages from the 15 collective members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who Latter-day Saints revere as prophets, seers and revelators.
"There's a real focus on the prophetic word," Dehlin said. The home page menu offers five major categories: "Our Heavenly Father's Plan" features church doctrine; "Family" includes material on strengthening marriage, family and youth; "The Church" provides LDS news, information and history; "Service" deals with church callings, teaching and service; and "Study" features scriptures, conference addresses, manuals and magazines.
The tools applications — which are still in development and will require signing in with an LDS account log-in — will provide access to ward and stake calendars and directories, the online study notebook and a myriad of maps for meetinghouse location and church-unit boundaries.
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