1 USA.gov The U.S. Government’s Official Web Portal March 15, 2007 Presented by Thomas Freebairn USA.gov Technology Solutions or

2 What is  U.S. government’s official web portal  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  This portal also allows website visitors to find government information by various topics, including  Organization  Audience  Topic  Online service  Location  Frequency of request

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

4 FirstGov Success

5 How did get its start?  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  In June 2000, the President accepted the gift from Brewer’s nonprofit organization, the Federal Search Foundation, and instructed that FirstGov.gov, the predecessor to USA.gov was to be launched within 90 days  FirstGov.gov went online on September 22, GSA and 22 federal agencies funded the initiative in 2001 and Since 2002, it has also received annual appropriations from Congress

6 Determining Content for USA.gov  Who is the customer?  What do the customers want?  What does government have to offer? 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:

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

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

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

10 USA.gov Linking Policy  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:  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

11 Features & Functionality: Search

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

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

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

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

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17 GobiernoUSA.gov  GobiernoUSA.gov is a single Internet gateway to more than 120,000 federal, state, and local web pages available in Spanish.  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.  Organized by four major audience groups:  Recursos Generales (General Resources for the Spanish-speaking public)  Recien Llegados (Newcomers to the U.S.)  Negocios (Spanish Businesses in the U.S.)  Visitantes Extranjeros (Foreign Visitors who may want to travel, study, or do business in the U.S.)

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

19  Online Services  News and Important Links  Agency Index Spanish language features also include: GobiernoUSA.gov

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

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

22 Site Innovations: Search - Images

23 Site Innovations: Search - News

24 Future Plan: Refreshed Design  To be unveiled this Spring  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  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

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27 Some Awards and Endorsements  “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)  Español,gov: “Best Practices” award ( Web Content Managers Group); high scorer in the American Customer Satisfaction Index

28 How You Can Contact FirstGov.gov: USA.gov Office of Citizen Services and Communications U.S. General Services Administration 1800 F Street, NW, Washington, DC FED-INFO/ (U.S. residents only)