-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        FW: Government websites and Google
Date:   Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:14:09 -0400
From:   Curtis, Gwen <[log in to unmask]>
To:     Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>


I found this site really helpful in searching for government maps.  Be
sure to click the "Search Government Sites" button rather than hitting
enter like I did at first. -- Gwen Curtis

**********************************************************************

        Google to Launch Government Search Site

        By Kim Hart
        Washington Post Staff Writer
        Thursday, June 15, 2006; D01

        It's finally happening: The ever-expanding Google Inc. is making
its move on the federal government.

        Today the company plans to announce a new online product aimed
at being a one-stop shop for searching federal government Web sites. The
launch of Google U.S. Government Search, http://usgov.google.com ,
targets federal employees who often need to search across several
government agencies.

        The site is also designed to help citizens navigate convoluted
pages of government-speak and tailors news feeds to their interests.
Users can customize the layout of their page to remain updated on
government-related news from official and commercial sources, including
the White House, Department of Defense, The Washington Post and CNN.
Google is also working with agencies to increase the frequency of news
updates to keep content current.

        "People are moving away from directory access to enter these
sites," said Kevin Gough, product manager for Google U.S. Government
Search. "They just want to type in a few words to pinpoint the
information they need."

        The product is an outgrowth of the company's flagship site,
which has the largest share of the U.S. search market -- 50 percent in
April, according to Nielsen-NetRatings. It aims to "unify disparate Web
sites," Gough said, so people have a single source to find everything
from Social Security policy to income tax forms.

        The government search site joins similar engines that target the
same audience. The five-year-old FirstGov.gov, a government-sponsored
site powered by Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, is geared to help citizens locate
federal, state and local information without sifting through individual
agency sites.

        Other similar search engines include http://govspot.com ,
http://searchgov.com and http://govengine.com .

        Gough said he expects Google's product to "complement" FirstGov
without directly competing with it.

        But Google's name recognition, especially among first-time
users, may give it an edge over FirstGov, said Larry Freed, president of
ForeSee Results Inc., a Michigan firm that measures customer
satisfaction of Internet sites.

        The new site could actually drive traffic away from other
government-related search engines that buy ads on Google's main search
engine, he said.

        "Google drives a fair amount of traffic to those sites," he
said. Now that Google has its own portal that serves the same purpose,
"they could potentially be creating competition for their customers."

        Many government employees access documents and information
through agencies' intranets, or inter-office Web sites, and through
FirstGov, said Stephanie Zaiser, communications director for the
National Association of Government Employees.

        But they may switch to the new engine if it is easier to use,
she said. Zaiser expects federal employees to use the Google site
because of the company's "ubiquitous presence" in the search-engine
market.

        More than 87 million unique visitors used Google's search engine
in May, compared with 443,000 that searched FirstGov, according to
Nielsen-NetRatings.

        In recent years, Google has launched several specialized search
engines to help users narrow their results. In addition to heavily used
sites geared specifically for news, directions and maps, newer sites
search the contents of scholarly journals, books and blogs. Yesterday,
Google Book Search launched a Web site geared toward searching
Shakespearean plays.

        "There is a trend toward developing more finite,
category-specific searches," said Deborah Fallows, senior research
fellow at the Pew Internet and American Life Project. "Government
employees are among the heaviest users of government Web sites, so
there's a market."

        A November 2004 Pew survey found that 54 percent of Internet
users have looked for information from government Web sites, and 10
percent of users will look for such information on any given day.