The US Coast Guard brings us their 10 most popular pages.

1. Merchant Mariner Documentation (MMD) / Standards for Training Certification & Watchkeeping (STCW) / National Maritime Center (NMC)
2. Civilian Careers
3. Coast Guard Reserve
4. CG Personnel Service Center (PSC), Arlington VA
5. National Vessel Documenation Center (NVDC)
6. Training Center Cape May, NJ
7. USCG Directives System
8. CG District Seven (D7), Miami FL
9. iCommandant – Commandant’s Blog
10. Uniform Distribution Center (UDC)

The top ranked page belongs to the mariner licensing branch of the US Coast Guard. While we visit the page often it’s more famous for taking the place of USCG.mil/stcw, a page in much need of a redesign. Also interesting is the absence of Homeport from the list. Homeport was created as an “all in one” solution for finding information on ports, vessels and mariners but never gained popularity with industry insiders. We think the main reason for it’s failure is the security “feature” that prevents us from linking directly to pages within Homeport. What use is the information if we can’t easily share it with friends & colleagues?

We are also happy to see iCommandant – Web Journal of Admiral Thad Allen make the list.  iCommandant just celebrated their 200th blog posting (where they mentioned gCaptain as a good read!)

For the record, here are the official USCG pages that we use the most. [Continue Reading →]

The Coast Guard has launched a new website with Video, Podcasts and Photos featured on the homepage. In the official Press Release they write:

I am excited to share the new and improved Coast Guard Homepage with you. Our goal was to create a homepage that would become the single location for Coast Guard information to both internal and external audiences. What we now have is just that — a homepage that provides important and timely Coast Guard information to all. It also more closely aligns with what Admiral Allen stated during a questions and answer session after his speech at the National Press Club on February 8, 2008: if we don’t keep up with new media and technologies we will marginalize our ability to communicate externally, and more importantly we will also lose the interest of our own Coast Guard members.

The new site features, among other things, a new magazine (no issues yet published), YouTube channel and official Podcast. It may not be as entertaining as Messing About In Ships… but we are encouraged by the effort.

You can find all this and more at the Coast Guard’s homepage: USCG.mil