SoS finally changes its goofy website name
Monday, Nov 1, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* There was a time when people out to make a buck convinced newbie website owners that their sites should have their own new identities apart from the ones that the organizations/companies had worked for decades or even longer to establish. So, for example, the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s online name became “St. Louis Today.” Lots of Downstate TV stations got into the act as well. I always thought it was a stupid idea and, before the age of easy Googling, even harmful. And the same goes for the Illinois SoS website name. CyberDriveIllinois.com? What?
But it turns out there’s an even better reason to change that silly name. Press release…
Secretary of State Jesse White announced that the Illinois Secretary of State’s office has changed its official web address from “cyberdriveillinois.com” to “ILSOS.gov.” The change is designed to help combat fraud. A “.gov” website address designates it as an official government website, which is exclusively provided to federal, state and local government entities.
“Changing the website address to ILSOS.gov will help combat fraud at a time when scams designed to defraud Illinoisans have been proliferating,” said White. “Because the new address uses a .gov suffix, you can rest assured it belongs to a federal, state or local government agency – in this case the Illinois Secretary of State’s office – which adds to your peace of mind when transacting business online with my office.”
White noted that Illinoisans who type cyberdriveIllinois.com into the browser will be directed to ILSOS.gov.
In addition to the website address change, White’s office unveiled a redesigned website that is designed to make it easier for the public to locate services quickly. The website prioritizes the most frequently used services, such as driver license, ID card and license plate renewals. It also breaks down online services into a specific section to help customers who wish to conduct business online.
Popular features, such as Safe Driver Renewal, DL/State ID Card Renewal, Facility Finder, Pick-a-Plate, License Plates Renewal and Business Services filings remain prominently featured.
- Hahaha - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 10:45 am:
Why does everything this office does look like it hopped out of the 90’s? The redesigned license plates are an actual embarrassment. This “new” website looks so dated. And before you say anything, I vote for Jesse.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 10:47 am:
===Why does everything this office does look like it hopped out of the 90’s? ===
lol
After 20+ years, you still gotta ask that question?
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 10:50 am:
“license plates are an actual embarrassment.”
Agree x 100. Way too busy while showcasing nothing.
Yeah, I get it, we’re the Land of Lincoln.
- DuPage Dave - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 10:51 am:
To be fair, SOS was a bit ahead of the curve in terms of getting things on the internet. “Cyber” was a pretty popular term for a while (Cyber Monday?) but clearly out of date now. On the other hand the dot com domain name never made sense.
This year it was quite easy to pay online for my license sticker and get it mailed to my house. Beats driving to a facility and waiting in line.
- Leslie K - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 10:52 am:
I’m sure Alexi will soon be announcing his new plan to revamp the SOS website…
Interesting background. I’ve wondered about both the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the IL SOS website names, and others. And the new SOS site does look easier to navigate.
- Leap Day William - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:04 am:
== “license plates are an actual embarrassment.” ==
= Agree x 100. Way too busy while showcasing nothing.=
I’m gonna disagree and say that I like the current plates more than the ones before them. That said, I do have specialty plates on mine because I earned them.
- Product of the '60's - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:07 am:
I like the redesign….overall much clearer. The Illinois Tollway web site is one that needs redesign.
- Anyone Remember - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:11 am:
“license plates are an actual embarrassment.”
No, THIS is an embarrassment.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/10/22/new-ohio-license-plate-design-mistake-wright-brothers-plane/6132309001/
- Shield - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:16 am:
The redesigned website looks the same lol
- dan l - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:19 am:
to be fair, the SOS site might be a little dated but I’ve always felt like it was pretty functional.
- NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:30 am:
Fox 55 Springfield/27 Champaign has gone by “Fox Illinois” for at least a decade.
While their infamous parent station, WICS Channel 20, has gone by the “ABC Newschannel 20″ moniker since the Big Switch of Labor Day 2005 (WICS and sister station WICD Champaign go from NBC to ABC, while WAND-17 Decatur went ABC to NBC).
Surprised Sinclair hasn’t thought of this novel concept for 20/15: “ABC Illinois.”
- Mr K - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:33 am:
Not sure why they’re not using the ‘illinois.gov’ domain — ilsos.illinois.gov or sos.illinois.gov.
That would seem to make the most sense — especially since it’s a state agency anyway.
- Chris - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:35 am:
“CyberDrive” sounded so damn futuristic in 2007.
- Chris - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:38 am:
==This “new” website looks so dated.==
It’s no Amazon.com, but the SOS the website is very functional and SOS staff actual seems to think about creating a halfway decent user friendly environment.
- Tommydanger - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 11:58 am:
>
Please provide the location for this experience so that I too might see such persons at work.
- TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 12:00 pm:
== Not sure why they’re not using the ‘illinois.gov’ domain ==
From a technical and security standpoint, it does make sense.
Having a fully unique top-level domain, the part immediately preceding the .gov segment, allows for a unique security certificate that only applies to that single domain.
Whereas using a subdomain of an illinois.gov address would likely mean using either a wildcard certificate for all illinois.gov subdomains, or using a specific certificate only for that exact subdomain of illinois.gov which would then cause a nightmare of managing certificate chains on the rest of the sites on illinois.gov
In this configuration, if any sort of attack happened on one illinois.gov site it will not impact this site and vice versa.
They may have a redirect on an illinois.gov subdomain somewhere, but from a security perspective it makes good sense for them to have their own unique domain for the official site.
- thechampaignlife - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 12:02 pm:
==This “new” website looks so dated.==
The Wayback Machine let’s us take a peek at their site in August 2000:
https://web.archive.org/web/20000831193844/http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/
==Fox 55 Springfield/27 Champaign has gone by “Fox Illinois” for at least a decade.==
Don’t forget the infamous WCIA illinoishomepage.net.
- Moi - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 12:22 pm:
Well, IL does need some help…but bad enough to ask for “Save Our Ship.” SOS?
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 12:23 pm:
New name. Same crappy non-intuitive 2002 site. I get it. You’re government and can’t pay a lot of money for a good UI consultant, but seriously, it’s 2021. Do better.
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 12:24 pm:
BTW, this reminds me so much of the Board of Election redesign fiasco.
- Roadrager - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 12:30 pm:
I noticed last week that the CyberDrive address forwarded to the new ILSOS one. Makes sense and catches up with the times a little.
As for the site itself, I will take functionality over flourishes 8 days out of 7, and the ILSOS is ugly, but it loads fast, and it works. Granted, I did it on a desktop PC because I’m older than dust, so I don’t know how well the site translates for other devices.
By the way, I was on the site to renew my license, which had “expired” in 2020 and required an in-person renewal. But I got a letter from the SOS saying I now qualified for online renewal as a safe driver. Something others in a similar situation may want to keep an eye out for.
- bkhartbnjo - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 12:37 pm:
I don’t know guys, looks pretty intuitive to me. Not attractive or entertaining, but only capfaxers visit illinois state web sites for entertainment.
This site moves fast, does not waste a lot of space for unnecessary images, resizes cleanly, and has clear regions for different services. It certainly makes sense to abandon the .com address.
- DuPage - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 2:44 pm:
It would be a great service to senior citizens if Jesse White would see to it that they could get their senior discounted plates by paper application.
Second, he should push for a change in the law that lets giant truck-cranes drive without plates to require truck plates by weight, the same as all other trucks.
- ArchPundit - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 3:24 pm:
While the site could use a little more oomph to it, it looks to be great for accessibility for those who have disabilities. The text is clear and easy to read and a screen reader should do pretty well with it.
- _______ - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 3:47 pm:
It’s an remarkable piece of writing in support of all the web users;
they will get advantage from it I am sure.
- Scott - Monday, Nov 1, 21 @ 3:55 pm:
I’m a web developer, and honestly, the site isn’t that bad. No, it’s not some super fancy design using the latest javascript framework with all the bells and whistles, but it’s clean, it’s functional, and it doesn’t make my eyes bleed when I see it. It also doesn’t look like it has a lot of extra “cruft” that might cause accessibility problems or have exploits discovered later on down the road. For a government website, I’ve seen MUCH MUCH worse.
- ______ - Thursday, Nov 4, 21 @ 10:37 pm:
I’ve learn several good stuff here. Certainly price bookmarking
for revisiting. I surprise how much attempt you place to make
any such great informative website.