USA gov The U S Government s Official Web

USA. gov The U. S. Government’s Official Web Portal March 15, 2007 Presented by Thomas Freebairn USA. gov Technology Solutions 202 -219 -1379 or thomas. freebairn@gsa. gov 1

What is www. USA. gov? v U. S. government’s official web portal v USA. gov provides links to government websites and offers a robust search engine that indexes federal, state, local, tribal and territorial government information anywhere on the Internet v This portal also allows website visitors to find government information by various topics, including v Organization v Audience v Topic v Online service v Location v Frequency of request 2

USA. gov – The U. S. Government’s Official Web Portal 3

First. Gov Success 4

How did www. USA. gov get its start? v In 2000, Internet entrepreneur Eric Brewer offered to donate a powerful search engine to the government. The gift accelerated work that had already begun on a government-wide portal v In June 2000, the President accepted the gift from Brewer’s nonprofit organization, the Federal Search Foundation, and instructed that First. Gov. gov, the predecessor to USA. gov was to be launched within 90 days v First. Gov. gov went online on September 22, 2000. GSA and 22 federal agencies funded the initiative in 2001 and 2002. Since 2002, it has also received annual appropriations from Congress 5

Determining Content for USA. gov With 24 million government web pages as potential resources, deciding on a structure and on feature topics is challenging. Our approach to developing USA. gov centers around the answers to these three questions: v Who is the customer? v What do the customers want? v What does government have to offer? 6

Customers v Citizens v Kids, parents, seniors, veterans, etc. v Businesses and Nonprofits v Corporations, foreign businesses, nonprofits, and the selfemployed v Government v Federal, state, and local government employees, military personnel, and tribal governments 7

Determining Content for USA. gov: What Customers Want v Feedback from USA. gov visitors v USA. gov site and search statistics v Contact Us v Suggest-A-Link v Customer Satisfaction and other surveys v Real-Time FAQs v Input from call centers (1 -800 -FED-INFO) v Input from government agencies & partners v Nationwide focus groups and usability tests v Internet and market research statistics v Search engine terms 8

Most Popular Topics at USA. gov v Government benefits and grants v Federal jobs v Buying things from government (e. g. , cars, homes) v International travel v Naturalization and immigration 9

USA. gov Linking Policy v v v v v Official government-owned or supported site Official government information or services Complements existing information and services Accessible and applicable to a wide audience Relevant and useful for our customers Accurate and current Consistent with privacy and security policies User-friendly Highly desirable: v v v Crosses agency or intergovernmental boundaries Enables online transactions Includes ability to interact with government Provides information on service performance Provides community-level information and services 10

Features & Functionality: Search 11

Browsing USA. gov by Audience Channels: Sub-Audience Channels: v Citizen v Kids v Business v Parents v Government Employee v Seniors v Military and Veterans v Americans Abroad 12

Browsing USA. gov by Topical Directory Topics featured in the Citizen Gateway include: Benefits and Grants Jobs and Education Consumer Guides Money and Taxes Defense and International Public Safety and Law Environment, Energy, and Agriculture Reference and General Government Family, Home, and Community Science and Technology Health and Nutrition Travel and Recreation History, Arts, and Culture Voting and Elections 13

Browsing USA. gov by Organization v A-Z Index of Government Agencies v Based on the U. S. Government Manual, but updated regularly v Available in printerfriendly format v Links (URLs) checked daily to correct broken or changed addresses 14

Browsing First. Gov. gov by Organization v State, Territorial, and v Local Governments v State, city, and county home pages v State agencies by topic v State governors v State legislatures v Statistics by state and local area v Tribal government websites 15

www. Gobierno. USA. gov 16

Gobierno. USA. gov v Gobierno. USA. gov is a single Internet gateway to more than 120, 000 federal, state, and local web pages available in Spanish. v This site represents an important outreach effort to Spanish speakers in the U. S. who are not fully proficient in English, but who need meaningful access to official government programs and services. v Organized by four major audience groups: v Recursos Generales (General Resources for the Spanish-speaking public) v Recien Llegados (Newcomers to the U. S. ) v Negocios (Spanish Businesses in the U. S. ) v Visitantes Extranjeros (Foreign Visitors who may want to travel, study, or do business in the U. S. ) 17

Gobierno. USA. gov Topics include: v health and safety v education v immigration v citizenship v federal benefits v consumer protection v housing v business assistance v legal resources v the environment 18

Gobierno. USA. gov Spanish language features also include: v Online Services v News and Important Links v Agency Index 19

Site Innovations: RSS Feeds v USA. gov launched RSS feeds in January 2006. RSS—or Really Simple Syndication— provides an easy way to keep up with important news and information without having to browse or search. v RSS is written in the Internet coding language known as XML. Users can collect and view feeds from different sources using as RSS Reader. 20

Site Innovations: E-Mail Updates v Another recent innovation on USA. gov sends an email update to those who’ve asked to be notified when their pages of interest are updated. v USA. gov currently provides this service for the top 35 web pages, including the reference page on Public Libraries. v Since Gov. Delivery’s launch: v Nearly 28, 000 subscriptions v 94 email message have been sent v More than 20, 000 click-throughs were reported 21

Site Innovations: Search - Images 22

Site Innovations: Search - News 23

Future Plan: Refreshed Design v To be unveiled this Spring v Incorporates - Best web site practices - Results of several rounds of usability tests with the public - Results of an ongoing online survey conducted on USA. gov v New Features - Get It Done Online Feature - Visitors Gateway - Font size options - Toggle between English and Spanish pages - Web Chat - Search Spotlight Featuring Senate and House of Representatives 24

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Some Awards and Endorsements v v v “Favorite Places on the Web” (Chicago Sun Times) “Hot Sites” (USATODAY. com) “Top 100 Classic Sites” (PC Magazine) “#1 in Global E-Government Readiness” (United Nations) “#1 in Overall Federal e-Government” (Brown University) “Innovations in American Government Award” (Harvard University) v Español, gov: “Best Practices” award ( Web Content Managers Group); high scorer in the American Customer Satisfaction Index 27

How You Can Contact First. Gov. gov: USA. gov Office of Citizen Services and Communications U. S. General Services Administration 1800 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20405 1 -800 -FED-INFO/1 -800 -333 -4636 (U. S. residents only) http: //www. firstgov. gov/feedback/Feedback. Form. jsp 28