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After 12 years at mckeesport.org, the city's website has moved to www.mckeesport-pa.gov, and officials are trying to spread the word as widely and quickly as possible.

All email address that included "@mckeesport.org" should also now say "@mckeesport-pa.gov."

The switch came after renewal notices for the name "mckeesport.org" weren't received by city administrators in time to keep the address, which was snapped up by a web entrepreneur in Argentina.

When he told city employees that he would sell the name back for $13,500, they told him to forget it. The address has since turned up on an auction site for web names, or "domains," listed for $590, but city officials said Wednesday they were told that price doesn't include the full cost of transferring ownership, and that they don't intend to get into a bidding war.

The trouble apparently began after the company that hosted the domain was sold, City Administrator Matt Gergely said. Renewal notices for the address --- also known as a domain --- were being sent to the wrong people.

Web searches indicate that the domain "mckeesport.org" was a hot commodity not because it invokes a city at the confluence of the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers, but merely because it includes the word "sport." Sports and related topics are among the most popular searches on leading search engines.

. . .

"We want to make sure that this can't happen again," Gergely said. The new web address, which ends in .gov, is administered by the federal government's General Services Administration and cannot be transferred without the city's official permission.

"We felt it was the stablest and safest way for us to move forward," he said.

The website itself is in flux after maintenance duties were taken over by Ed Wojdyla. In the past, council members and residents have frequently complained that information on the website was either out-of-date or missing entirely.

Wojdyla is doing the job on a part-time, as needed basis, Gergely said. The city is trying to make sure that forms, permits, documents (such as council meeting meetings) and contact names and numbers are put onto the website in a timely fashion, he said.

Although the look of the new website is still being refined, "we wanted to make sure we got the information out there," Gergely said.

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