Many were repeat customers. If you have a candy store and people keep coming back, that tells you something. But even the repeat users voice a list of gripes. Delays in reaching the main sites or sub-sites, especially at the IRS during tax time, have been particularly noticeable. Few federal sites offer much live video, sound or two-way communication.
Announcements often lack dates, making it impossible to know how current material is.
Judicial branch representation is skeletal. Like the Blue Pages in a phone book, most sites are organized by agencies' names rather than the services they perform, making it necessary to know in advance which agency provides the information being sought. But the White House and other sites have started listing services along with agencies' names, so a citizen can find information on passports without having to know that the State Department issues them. While users cope with their frustrations, site developers face their own struggles, including privacy concerns, infrastructure capacity, break-ins and computer viruses. And Congress is scrutinizing the cost of the government's online endeavors.