The unleash.com site first came to life in May 1995 and it started as just a single page. Over the years it went through a number of makeovers and it grew to over ten thousand pages. Unfortunately it got to the point where making some of the needed changes were monumental tasks.

Not only were there are a lot of pages, there were different product niches represented that would truly need a home of their own to thrive. Over a year ago we started to tear part unleash.com and move those niches to a series of eight separate sites. Each site has its own look and feel and focuses on just one niche.

With only the carcass of the unleash.com remaining, today it makes the move to a completely new site. From thousands of pages down to only four. One of the things we needed to resolve was what would happen should someone try to visit one of the now missing pages. Most Web users are very familiar with a “404 page” which comes up if you try to visit a page that doesn’t exist. We designed a special 404 page (sample at right) for the new unleash.com that helps direct visitors to the appropriate site where the desired content can be found.

The big change from old site to new site will be made during business hours this morning. Most of you won’t read this post until after the change has been made. While we have prepared for the switch, there will still be some stressful moments for a short while during the transition. If all goes well, it should take just a few minutes. During that time, some visitors will get the old page and some will get the new page. We expect that our e-mail will stop functioning for a few minutes. So if we are a little slow to respond, please give us a little more time today.

Once the switch is complete, I’ll definitely breathe a sigh of relief. The most difficult part of the project will be complete and I can truly focus on building each of the new eight sites. Of course there are also the many others sites we develop and maintain for clients.