FirstGov to add state links

FirstGov, the Internet portal that provides access to all federal government Web pages, plans to add links to most state Web pages beginning this week.

To accommodate the addition, FirstGov will change in appearance somewhat and add a state field to its search engine, said Beverly Godwin, FirstGov's content director.

Including state Web pages will increase FirstGov's Web page index from 31 million federal pages to more than 50 million federal and state pages, Godwin said in an address May 18 to the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

Adding the ability to locate state information and services through FirstGov represents a major step toward the goal of creating a central government Internet address.

"This is important because it shows that FirstGov recognizes that most government services are done at the state and local level," said Ari Schwartz, an analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Providing links to state Web sites will make it easier to locate information and services without having to know which level of government provides them, he said.

FirstGov will also begin emphasizing the importance of Web sites that enable people to perform transactions with government via the Internet, Godwin said. The portal plans to highlight Web sites where people can fill out government forms, make payments and conduct other business, she said.

The changes could help 8-month-old FirstGov develop "a brand identity for government online that is absolutely crucial" for e-government to succeed, said Steven Clift, an e-government advocate and Web designer based in Minnesota. "It would be nice," he said, if FirstGov evolves into a recognized and trusted starting place for accessing government information and services.

But adding 20 million state pages to FirstGov will also be a challenge for the portal's search capability, Clift said. Ideally, FirstGov's keyword search capability would be augmented by navigation tools that include directories that have been edited by people, he said.

In one effort to make information easier to find, FirstGov is promoting the development of cross-agency portals and awarding them the FirstGov "brand." Thus, "Seniors.gov" has become "FirstGov for Seniors," offering services and information tailored to the needs of senior citizens (see related story, Page 52). nRelated links:

FirstGov likely to go interactive /fcw/articles/2001/0312/web-portal-03-15-01.asp

FirstGov ready for next page /fcw/articles/2001/0312/web-first-03-16-01.asp

Looking to localize FirstGov info /fcw/articles/2000/1113/web-geo-11-15-00.asp

Featured

  • Defense
    Ryan D. McCarthy being sworn in as Army Secretary Oct. 10, 2019. (Photo credit: Sgt. Dana Clarke/U.S. Army)

    Army wants to spend nearly $1B on cloud, data by 2025

    Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said lack of funding or a potential delay in the JEDI cloud bid "strikes to the heart of our concern."

  • Congress
    Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) at the Hack the Capitol conference Sept. 20, 2018

    Jim Langevin's view from the Hill

    As chairman of of the Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committe and a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rhode Island Democrat Jim Langevin is one of the most influential voices on cybersecurity in Congress.

Stay Connected

FCW INSIDER

Sign up for our newsletter.

I agree to this site's Privacy Policy.
https://fcw.com/articles/2001/05/21/firstgov-to-add-state-links.aspx
fcw.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2019-43
84776
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:7LCCLD3MR7IUG5OVKHXLZKABRA3LNJB4
<urn:uuid:ad709db8-7286-4165-9f0e-3e177a2d6366>
2019-10-19T18:37:01Z
66.77.93.18
text/html
sha1:YESO2KWVSZZMJJ7QMBBJAKLDDWZWGTU7
<urn:uuid:cd420b1b-e459-4ff1-aae6-e361ef675f0e>
https://fcw.com/articles/2001/05/21/firstgov-to-add-state-links.aspx
response
<urn:uuid:6de070ae-b26a-4f06-920d-d2b3f796e82a>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-43
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for October 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-242.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.16 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/