MESSAGE FROM THE RCSB PDB

On December 30, 2005, the RCSB PDB upgraded www.pdb.org to the improved database and website that had been in beta testing since July 2004.

In addition to enhanced navigation and more accurate searching and reporting, the new site has also brought significant performance enhancements, such as faster searching and page display.

The RCSB PDB website is accessed by about 100,000 unique visitors per month from nearly 140 different countries. More than 600 GigaBytes of data are transferred each month. On a typical weekday, two pages from the site are viewed every second.

The new features of the site, which include enhanced searching, browsing, navigating, and reporting, have received significant usage. For example, the options for exploring structures through browsers that navigate the PDB archives using classifications from Gene Ontology, EC nomenclature, source organism, disease, genome, SCOP, and CATH were used more than 6,000 times in January alone. The narrated Flash tutorial, which provides an introduction to using the new site, was viewed more than 11,000 times.

The RCSB PDB thanks everyone who has contributed to the development of this new resource since testing. Questions about the transition to this site not addressed in the FAQ, which includes information about direct linking and downloading, should be sent to info@rcsb.org.