Huntington Beach was officially nicknamed after the fun-loving beach town popularized in the song, "Surf City," more than 13 years ago. Telephone callers to the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau hear the song after hours or waiting "on hold," but not until its new website was launched has its brand position been instantly accessible to millions worldwide.

Visit www.surfcityusa.com and the melody of "Surf City" immediately sings out from the PC and fades after 30 seconds. Amidst supporting lyrics - "You know we're going to Surf City, gonna have some fun" - flash-based photos and copy about Huntington Beach load simultaneously in rhythm to the music. (For cable and DSL users, load time is under eight seconds.) The user-friendliness of the website extends beyond its homepage. Web surfers can enter on any of 300+ detailed pages about Surf City or access anywhere else within three clicks. More than 600 copyrighted images are featured because pictures sell a destination.

An intelligent database-driven architecture provides more than just alphabetized merchant lists to locate amenities and services. A beach section identifies restaurants, hotels, attractions and activities with a beach view. Shops can be identified by type of retailer. Restaurants are sorted by cuisine type. Lodging can be found with categories such as resort, hostel or RV camping.

The events module offers the City's most comprehensive events listing and unique search abilities. A simple form allows email reminders for future events. Multi-day events can be entered into the database just one time and disappear when they are over - automatically! The annual calendar is also published to www.surfcityevents.com to bolster its use and search engine placement. From the Bureau's perspective, perhaps the best feature of the website is its unique content management system. It allows anyone on the Bureau staff to update information and photographs, build new pages or publish entire new sections without any training. Compared to relying upon an outside vendor for content management, the do-it-yourself savings are substantial.