Currently, the DCED is creating business-to-business links through the web.

"We want the website to be like a yellow or white pages," he says. "We are particularly focusing on rural areas so that companies there have a means to link to businesses elsewhere." In addition, the DCED is creating a video and CD-ROM to be used in conjunction with other business that are trying to recruit employees.

The Idaho Department of Commerce's website (www.idoc.state.id.us) offers a colorful array of options starting with its homepage entitled "Paint Your Own Vibrant Picture of Idaho." Here its artist palette and paint wells at the bottom of the page offer various selections: New, Quick Glance, Business Information, Visitors See & Do, Idaho States, Exports, Community Information, and Commerce Contacts.

Cliff Long, the Idaho DOC's economic development specialist, comments that the website is "always a work in progress." The agency brought the website on line in April 1996 as another means to distribute information about the state. Graphics have been developed that break up the material into components.

At this time, the site does not offer land and building inventory information. It does, however, provide a community profile data base that is searchable with local information.

The state of Nebraska offers a detailed website (www.ded.state.ne.us/) that includes the full gamut of information on programs and services, and economic development news. Part of its homepage is a WWW Registry Project and Nebraska Link. Here browsers can obtain information by city and colleges and universities.

The Greater Chamber of Omaha offers its own website (www.accesomaha.com), which has been up and running for one year. The site is broken into eight sectors.

"The information is text based and not geared toward marketing," says Cheryl Straub, vice president of business resources for the chamber. "But it does provide good information such as tax incentives and includes an extensive section on transportation, utilities, communications and the labor market."

Very little of the site provides specific information that must be updated frequently.

"Instead, we prefer people to come to us so that we can present them with the full picture of our community and the full ranges of options," she says.

Besides categories available from the homepage, surfers can scroll down to announcements of expansions by company name, SIC code, number of employees, type of expansion and expansion date. Searches can be specific as the building or site square footage, building ceiling height, type of construction, floor specifications, electrical power, loading facilities, price, proximity of development acreage, and proximity of rail and transportation facilities. Vacancy rates, land prices, average rental rates, and average sales prices for both industrial and office space are provided, as are labor availability details and descriptions of industry sectors.

The Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development's website (www.mdbusiness.state.md.us/) gives a comprehensive look at every aspect of the state. Its homepage opens with a box in which the browser can enter keywords to search. Or one can link to data pages on the state.

"We provide a whole range of information for corporations looking to expand," says Aaron Rosenberg, its webmaster. "It is a work in progress. We are always fine tuning the site and adding information."

One helpful feature is detailed information about industries that have clustered in Maryland. One can even click on business names and be hotlinked to their websites.

Last year, the Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC) gave this state its first major marketing presence on the World Wide Web (www.cerc.com). With 160 pages, the site includes a "tour" of Connecticut's business locations, an overview of the state's top industrial and commercial sites, and links with other organizations central to the state's economic development effort.

Included is general information on Connecticut, real estate services, business programs and services, and information about CERC. Business Programs and Services provides information on community development, state agencies and incentives. The Real Estate Server takes one to a SiteFinder, a computer database of available commercial and industrial properties developed by Connecticut realtors and the CERC.

"The website is being enhanced even further with plans to establish internet access to the SiteFinder by the end of the year," says Tom Bradley, CERC marketing director. At that time a selection of properties from the database will be featured after the browser completes and submits a Site Search Form. For now, however, only a summary of properties is available.

Surfing the site will also give readers information on companies that have moved to Connecticut, are thriving there, upcoming trade missions, the development of foreign connections, export programs and assistance, Connecticut facts and statistics and enterprise zones.

Called ProCure, this system provides quick and easy access to data which customers can print out or view as a video. "The system was first built for our own use. But we found it to be an excellent marketing tool for our customers," says Wilson Davis, AEP manager of economic development in Roanoke, VA.

Since the program is installed into customers' computers, there is no link to AEP. The company is continuously fine tuning the program.

The cost of ProCure varies.

"It does require a Windows 95 operating environment, although we have an older version that operates on Windows 3.1" says Charles Prior of AEP's Columbus, Ohio economic development office. "The Windows 95 version, however, is for multimedia use and offers great flexibility whereby users can define their interests and assign fields."

CP&L's homepage now allows one to click onto a site called "Locating Your Company Here," which gives information about the Carolinas, details on utility rates, value-added programs and services, and hotlinks to North and South Carolina state websites.

"It also provides an available industrial buildings database and property contacts," he says. Here browsers fill in criteria based on square footage, ceiling height or the closest city. The interactive system then sorts for the appropriate information.

Soon to be expanded, the site will allow executives to enter their own company infor-mation, and do a return analysis that will provide information such as the impact tax assessments or utility rates will have on a project.

CP&L has found the web site to be a useful tool. Over the last year the web has resulted in four projects locating to the utility's service area. "These have been industrial back office and research and development projects," he reveals.

PacifiCorp, which serves Wyoming, Oregon and Utah, has recently added site specific information provided by local service areas to its website (www.pacificorp.com). Here websurfers click onto the site's economic development icon, one of the states served by PacifiCorp, then available real estate sites.

"This allows one to see what is available," says Carolyn Sanco, economic development specialist for PacifiCorp. Since PacifiCorp started this extended service in September, only 10 sites are hotlinked.

Sierra Pacific Power's homepage (www.sierrapacific.com) centers around the quality of life and business climate of Northern Nevada, and provides a wide variety of information to businesses that might be considering a relocation.

"We want to make it easy for companies that are looking at our area," said Chris Barrett, economic development manager for Sierra Pacific.

The site contains information such as demographics, employment and labor, business and community resources, education and government. The site also allows the web user to compare locations. Laramie, Wyo., advertises three industrial parks, including its Laramie River Business Park here. Included is a photo of the park and remaining available parcels and site specifics.

Each community is responsible for updating its sites. "Some of it is done by realtors," she says.

Sanco sees the site as a terrific public relations tool for the utility and its service territory.

"It offers us and our customers another resource by which to market economic development," she says. But like most EDC executives, Sanco doesn't see the website as an end-all.

"It's another tool for marketing," she says.

There are also several national websites that can provide you with information on locations across the U.S. One of these sites (http://www.expandman.com) is run by this magazine. Another is SelecTown (http://www.selectown.com), which contains a database of thousands of communities and facilities. This site provides detailed economic development information, such as a market access map, work force statistics, demographics and business climate information based on search criteria that you select.