FirstGov Search Portal

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FirstGov Search Portal

• Next Generation of Government Search

Bob Keating Search Program Manager FirstGov
Technologies GSA, Office of Citizen Services
Communications
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The Situation

• Running enterprise search engine that people
  expected to function like a web search engine
• Re-creating search index already being produced
  by the private sector
• Private sector more effectively searched
  government
• Did not have the infrastructure and resources to
  build a comparable service
• Ineffective affiliate, shared services model
• Little return on investment

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Lessons Learned

• Leverage private sector information, do not
  reproduce work already done by the private sector
  
• Search should function like publicly available
  web search engines that citizens use most often
• Seamless, transparent access to all government
  information
• Allow for easy addition of new services
• Search is a service, not a technology investment

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New Search Model

• Leverage content and infrastructure of an
  existing Web search engine
• Adopt standard content syndication model
• Provide unique, value-added services that
  differentiate FirstGov as the definitive source
  for government info on the Web
• Utilize existing assets
• All content and services accessible from a one
  search box
• Focus on the end-user, not technical operations

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Major Search Engines and Directories

• Search Engines Producers
• Google
• Yahoo!
• MSN Search
• Ask.com
• Gigablast
• WiseNut

• Web Directories
• Open Directory Project (DMOZ)
• Yahoo! Directory

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Based on Bruce Clays chart http//www.bruceclay.
com/searchenginechart.pdf
Supplies Primary Results
Supplies Secondary Results or other info
Supplies Directory Results
Supplies Paid Results
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New Search Model

• Establish Blanket Purchase Agreement to allow
  flexibility in acquiring state of the art search
  services
• Transform Affiliate Program from technology
  sharing model to a knowledge sharing model
• Continue to provide site search to legacy
  affiliates and verticals
• Provide a center for search best practices,
  including Search Engine Marketing and
  Optimization, Usability and Design, Policy, and
  Management
• Develop communities of interest around search
  engines and Search Engine Marketing

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FirstGov Search 3.0

• Task Order awarded to Vivísimo, Inc.
• Leverages Clusty.com - meta-search and clustering
  web search engine
• Core web search results provided by MSN Search
• Federal, state, local, tribal and territorial
  sites
• Over 50 million documents
• Meta-searches over a dozen unique resources
• Includes Government-wide Web, News and Image
  Search and possibly more
• Nearly half the cost of previous service
• Rapid deployment launched in 8 weeks

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Dedicated Google-like Search Page
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Spotlight Search
Expand List
Preview in Results
Clustering (DynamicCategorization)
MSN Search Vivisimo Crawler
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Expanded FAQ Results
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Full FAQ Results
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Preview Screen user can browse and interact
with site in the search results
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Key-match job search
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Key-match auto information search
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Upcoming Features

• News Search
• Image Search
• Expanding federal, state and local coverage to
  include more from other top-level domains
• Additional content sources and key-match features
• Additional display options
• Contingent on Available Funds
• Shopping Search
• Video Search
• FAQ Search
• Others that directly meeting citizens needs

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Benefits

• Single point of access to government information
• Leveraging existing assets and business processes
• Flexible and responsive to citizen needs
• Multiple paths for information discovery
• Always utilizing latest search technology
• Focus on services, not on operations
• Rapid deployment of new services
• Low cost. Savings applied to new services

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Contact InformationBob KeatingSearch Program
Managerrobert.keating_at_gsa.gov(202) 208-1047