As you surely have noticed, Tahoetopia.com has a new look and feel. We're happy to announce that effective October 2, 2014, we've made the switch to a new site platform, and with that, some sweeping changes, some immediate and obvious, and many more coming soon, to how Tahoetopia.com looks, feels and works - for you, our loyal Tahoetopians!

Why The Big Change?
For the last two years, Tahoetopia.com has been operating on a version of the operating platform (known as 'Drupal') that is soon being phased out. As a result, we've migrated the beast known as Tahoetopia to the newer, current version of the platform. This transition has been in the planning stages for several months, and is frankly, a herculean effort.

In addition to the practical and urgent reality of the upgrade to a new operating platform, Tahoetopia (as you'll surely agree) was in sore need of a facelift and numerous improvements in its usability and functionality. Thorough careful studies of our site traffic, user feedback (thanks to those who shared comments), and other sites, we've honed in on some key immediate changes in both look & design and functionality that we hope will improve the user experience and help continue to build the site's value to users around the world. 

What To Expect in the new Tahoetopia.com
Over the past ten years, we've always been adding new content, components, functionality, etc. Some works great and some doesn't go over as well. As such, we're approaching this new phase (as we have all along) as a work in progress. Our objectives, as noted above, are to make improvements everywhere possible, while retaining the critical content elements, and adding new ones, and all along improve the site so YOU love it even more.

What About Favorites/Bookmarks? - If you're a 'power-user' Tahoetopian - anonymously, or as a member with a Premium Subscription, you've surely got your favorite 'go-to' page or pages (webcams, weather, snow report, etc.). Rest assured, we've maintained the URL (web address) structure across the site so all of your bookmarks and favorites will remain in tact. You'll find things right where you left them!

Critical Content/Display Improvements - Through careful research of site analytics, we've made move to make the content that's most important to you, our site visitors, easier to find and better displayed. If you're on a desktop computer/browser, you'll immediately notice that the entire site is larger (wider). This change has allowed us to provide a much more pleasing viewing experience - specifically with our live webcams. The cam images (both streaming video and static images) are larger everywhere. Same thing for the weather images and other similar image-type items.

Video and Live Streaming - Video is a critical component on Tahoetopia.com - both the video we produce (for our Lake Tahoe Visitor Network) and the live streaming video from our enormous Lake Tahoe webcam network. The most obvious change is that we've done away with the multi-video player on the front page of Tahoetopia. In its place, we've put the live stream of the Lake Taheo Visitor Channel - our flagship product. We hope all Tahoetopians (new and old) will engage and enjoy watching our lively and timely Lake Tahoe content - online or anywhere.

Mapping - We've introduced Google Maps functionality on multiple content elements, including stories, event listings, and directory listings. We hope this is a valueable addition for all users, particularly our mobile users and those with the Lake Tahoe App.

More To Come - With all the improvements, there are sure to be challenges too. We appreciate your interest and support, and ask for your patience and help in moving Tahoetopia into the next realm. If you see/experience issues, bad links, missing images or pages, etc. PLEASE don't hesitate to let us know!

PLEASE HELP! TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!

These are just a few of the improvements and changes you'll notice. There are many more to come in the months ahead. While some may come as a shock, it's our hope that you'll come to love the new look and layout, and that you'll wholeheartedly jump on board for the ride!

We welcome, and encourage your comments, thoughts, suggestions, jeers and cudos, and encourage you to submit them here!