Enhanced Entrez
New Home Page
NCBI Home Page Redesigned
NCBI’s recently reorganized home page is designed to better accommodate its growing set of resources. Since 1994, when the Web site was launched, the number of services has grown from 4 to almost 40! The new design not only offers the needed flexibility and organization, but also provides added interest through frequently updated announcements and news items.
The new page retains the familiar top row of buttons for prominent access to the most frequently used resources, and adds a new query box that launches searches of GenBank, PubMed, and other databases directly from the home page.
A left-hand panel of links serves as a table of contents for the entire site, grouping services into nine functional categories: About NCBI, GenBank, Molecular Databases, Literature Databases, Genomic Biology, Tools, Research, Education, and FTP Site. The central portion of the page offers illustrated and frequently updated information about new services and topics in the news. A right-hand column of Hot Spots highlights additional selected resources.
For a comprehensive, at-a-glance view of NCBI resources, follow the Site Map link. The Site Map contains an alphabetical listing of all services in tabular form, brief descriptions of each, and an expanded table of contents.
Take some time to explore. Under About NCBI, you will find our conference exhibit schedule and NCBI News online. The GenBank page includes a sample record in the database overview. The Molecular Databases page groups the sequence, mapping, structure, and taxonomy databases built from direct submissions. Genomic Biology pulls together resources for compiling and analyzing genomic-scale data, such as UniGene, GeneMap ’99, RefSeq, and COGs. Under Tools, you will find BLAST, Electronic PCR, ORF Finder, and other analysis software. The Education link leads to online tutorials, sample exercises, overview articles, and other teaching resources.
The general organization of the new home page has also been extended to most of the other NCBI pages in the site hierarchy, allowing for fluid navigation among related resources.
—BR, DW
