# Presentation: 070756

## FirstGov Search Portal

- Next Generation of Government Search

- Bob Keating
- Search Program Manager
- FirstGov Technologies
- GSA, Office of Citizen Services & Communications

## 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

## 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

## 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

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

- Google
- Yahoo!
- MSN Search
- Ask.com
- Gigablast
- WiseNut

- _Web Directories_
- Open Directory Project (DMOZ)
- Yahoo! Directory

- Major Search Engines and Directories** **

## Supplies Directory Results

- Supplies Primary Results

- Supplies Secondary Results or other info

- Based on Bruce Clay’s chart: _[http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginechart.pdf](http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginechart.pdf)_

- Supplies Paid Results

## Slide 7

|  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Directories | Open Directory
Looksmart
Business.com
About.com | Looksmart
About.com | Open Directory
Looksmart |
| Indexes | Ask.com
Gigablast
Wisenut
Entireweb | Google
Yahoo
MSN
Ask.com | MSN
Ask.com
Gigablast
Wisenut
+ News Sources |
| Paid
Listings | FindWhat
Kanoodle
Looksmart | Google
Looksmart | Google |

## 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

## 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

## Dedicated “Google-like” Search Page

**Dedicated “Google-like” Search Page**

## Clustering 

**Clustering **
**(Dynamic****Categorization)**

**MSN Search + Vivisimo Crawler**

**Expand List**

**Preview in Results**

**Spotlight Search**

## Expanded FAQ Results

**Expanded FAQ Results**

## Full FAQ Results

**Full FAQ Results**

## Preview Screen – user can browse and interact with site in the search results

**Preview Screen – user can browse and interact with site in the search results**

## Key-match job search

**Key-match job search**

## Key-match auto information search

**Key-match auto information search**

## 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

## 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

## Contact InformationBob KeatingSearch Program Managerrobert.keating@gsa.gov(202) 208-1047