ChooseMaryland.org has gotten a fairly extreme makeover. Here's a snapshot of the site's new homepage:

Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development is one of the first agencies that new businesses and entrepreneurs look to for help in launching an enterprise in the state. So, it helps to have a site that's slick and with the times to make a favorable impression on people who want to invest time and money in a business here. DBED's Website used to look something like this.

One of the key differences now is an interactive media player that's front-and-center in the Website, where you can watch video. Going deeper into the site, you get to interact with a map that plots out different kinds of economic and business demographic data across Maryland.

It also seems to want to bring some of the personality of individuals and companies to the fore. Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour, is a "featurered entrepreneur" on the home page. And each industry profile features either a person or a company as a highlight. Nice touch.

Personally, my favorite page -- which I'll be bookmarking -- is MdBizTV. It's a hub for photos and news and video feeds, stock price and Twitter feeds, for all things MD DBED- and business-related. Notice how they aggregate news stories from different publishers, such as the Baltimore Sun and the Maryland Gazette. Very good idea and presentation, DBED.