IP Democracy: Google's Government Search Site Launches

Google has launched a government search engine called U.S. Government Search that covers a wide canvas of government-related sites. Included in Google’s Government Search are U.S. federal, state and local sites with domains such as .gov, .mil as well as select government sites with .com, .us, and .edu domains (eg. .usps.com, .ca.us and ndu.edu).

The index seems to run deep — a search using the term “Second DTV Periodic Review Report and Order” on Google’s Government Search brought up as the first result both the relevant Word and PDF document posted on the FCC’s web site, something that the Commission’s own search engine (notoriously bad) seemed unable to do in a user-friendly fashion. Try it yourself and see.

More importantly, the Google search engine allows users to set up customized pages so that the complex welter of government documents can produce desired updates. The ease, simplicity and accuracy of Google’s technology threatens a sub-industry devoted to organizing government agencies’ vast repositories of documents.

Among the sites poised for some steep competitive damage are FirstGov.gov, GovSpot, SearchGov, and GovEngine.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on June 15, 2006 10:05 AM to IP Democracy