Google Searches Uncle Sam
Users logging onto http://usgov.google.com get the Washington weather, White House News site, headlines from the Washington Post and, of course, "Google News: Top Government Stories."
Kevin Gough, product manager for Google U.S. Government Search, told the Washington Post that he didn't believe the Google government site would compete directly with FirstGov, which Microsoft operates with Vivisimo.
The Google site has a feature enabling users to personalize and narrow their searches, but the search engine firm's ubiquitous search box beckons to users from the top of the page.
The new site is the latest major move in Google's march to extend its search engine across multiple disciplines. While the site enables users to narrow their search focus somewhat, most government searching through the site is likely to return great numbers of hits. Stephanie Zaiser, an official at the National Association of Government Employees, said she expects users of the Google site to use Google simply because of its popularity and "ubiquitous presence."
Specialized search provider Fast Search and Transfer (FAST) said the new Google government service, like Microsoft's FirstGov function, is unlikely to impact specialized search engine providers, which generally deliver searches for publishers and content providers in a tightly focused manner.
"This is yet another example of Google competing with and eliminating content providers, and core businesses to become the sole window to the world's information," said Ali I. Riaz, FAST's president. He added that Google's moves have increasingly caused information providers to partner with enterprise search vendors to improve the quality of their searches.
"There are government applications where accuracy is very important," said Sandeep Swadia, FAST's senior director of product marketing. As he spoke, he typed in the word "immigration" into a Google box and said it returned 468 million hits.
Google refines its searches by offering searches in an index of government sites with .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, and .us, domains.
The Microsoft-Vivisimo search engine is supported by the federal government with a $1.8 million annual contract. Earlier this year, when the two companies took over the site, the number of accessible documents jumped from 8 million to 40 million.
Google launched an earlier government site in 1999.