Google Public Policy Blog: Government Transparency (US)

Senate testimony: Our efforts to better connect citizens to government

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 7:50 AM

Posted by Pablo Chavez, Policy Counsel, and Liz Eraker, Policy Analyst

 
 

Last month we blogged about a big step forward towards making U.S. government more accessible to its citizens: the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's approval of the E-Government Reauthorization Act of 2007, which nudges federal government agencies to make their websites more accessible to search engine crawlers. Today, J.L. Needham, who leads Google's work with federal agencies to help Google's crawlers find their web content, is testifying before the committee about Google's work in this area (read his complete testimony here).

 
 

While search engines have made connecting to online government resources easier in recent years, certain barriers can still get in citizens' way. "The most common barrier is the search form for a database that asks users to input several fields of information to find what they're looking for," J.L. will say in his testimony. "Our crawlers cannot effectively follow the links to reach behind the search form."

 
 

In 2005, Google introduced the Sitemap Protocol, an open standard for web sites that allows search engines to readily identify the location of all pages on the site, including database records lying behind a search form. The standard has been embraced by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask.com and others. As a result, any government site using this standard can reach Americans through all major search engines.

 
 

J.L. will also share Sitemaps success stories, noting that "the Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information operates a large database that makes research and development findings available to the public. OSTI developed a Sitemap for its Energy Citations and Information Bridge services in just 12 hours, opening up 2.3 million bibliographic records and full-text documents to crawling by search engines. After its implementation of Sitemaps, OSTI saw a dramatic increase in traffic to its services..."

 
 

Our testimony before the Senate coincides with the release of a new report today by the Center for Democracy and Technology and OMB Watch that lists some of the most frustrating federal government-related web searches. This morning's Washington Post has a preview, and we're sure the CDT report will be a topic of conversation at today's hearing.

 
 

We hope to post video of J.L.'s testimony later today. Stay tuned.

 
 

UPDATE (9:07 p.m.): Here's the video:

 
 

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Labels: Government Transparency

Senate helping make gov't more searchable

Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 4:16 PM

Posted by Liz Eraker, Policy Analyst

 
 

Let's say you're looking for some publicly available government information online. Maybe you're searching for property records or background on your local school district. Chances are, you'll start your quest not by typing in the URL of a government agency website, but by visiting Google or another search engine. Unfortunately, that may not produce the results you're looking for. In fact, much of the content that government agencies make available on the web (about half, by our estimates) doesn't appear in search results because of the way many government websites are structured.

 
 

Google has been working to make publicly available government information more accessible to the public. We're doing so by helping government agencies implement the Sitemap Protocol, a technical standard that makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index pages on a website. Tomorrow, a Senate committee will take another important step toward addressing this problem.

 
 

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will consider S. 2321, which extends and updates the E-Government Act of 2002. Part of the bill directs the Office of Management and Budget to create guidance and best practices for federal agencies to make their websites more accessible to search engine crawlers, and thus to citizens who rely on search engines to access information provided by their government. It also requires federal agencies to ensure their compliance with that guidance and directs OMB to report annually to Congress on agencies' progress.

Implementing Sitemaps is an easy way for government agencies to make their online information and services more visible and accessible to the citizens they serve. We've already worked with states like Arizona, California, and Virginia, and federal agencies in the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Health and Human Services. We've also supported the sitemapping of large databases by Library of Congress and National Archives and Records Administration.

We welcome this Senate legislation and encourage governments at all levels to participate in this effort to become more transparent and accessible to citizens.

 
 

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