The Israeli Diamond Industry Portal site, www.israelidiamond.co.il, operated by the Israel Diamond Institute Group of Companies (IDI,) has been upgraded to include new features and services of special use to the diamond and jewelry industries. The portal has introduced these improvements as part of IDI’s continuing efforts to make the site more accessible and user-friendly.

Picking up on the success of the web-based, interactive encyclopedia, the portal has added its own version, Wikidiamond, dealing exclusively with diamond and jewelry terms. The interactive lexicon has already posted a number of entries, and invites readers to propose additional terms and create content.

In addition, the portal has added some useful tools, such as a currency converter and an interactive index of polished diamond prices, based on data supplied daily by the Polished Prices website.

The portal has also expanded its news coverage to include financial news from Israel and around the world. Moreover, the site now features in-depth articles about a wide range of subjects of interest to diamond and jewelry professionals – including the Internet, the economy, new markets, technologies and more – as well as monthly video interviews of industry personalities.

Under development is a new section of essential information about diamond trading countries worldwide (such as main cities, embassies, currency, weather, banks, courier companies, Jewish life and more.) In addition, the Diamond Needs Board feature is being upgraded to make it even more user-friendly.

The IDI portal is the only such site of any diamond center in English, Hebrew and Chinese. It functions as a daily work tool and venue for the diamond industry in Israel and worldwide, providing industry news, in-depth articles, interviews, photos and video clips. It also creates a B2B marketplace for the exchange of business contacts that lead to actual transactions. With thousands of registered users in 128 countries, the portal is a dynamic site, with content being updated throughout the day. Every month the site has tens of thousands of entries, and hundreds of thousands of pages viewed.