Earlier this year, AOL began adding links to state and local services to Government Guide, providing its 24 million subscribers with easy access to services from driver s license renewals to state and local consumer affairs offices. The portal is an essential piece of the infrastructure of electronic government. Not everyone in the portal business is as positive, however. The Software Information Industry Association worries that FirstGov, with its free, comprehensive access to government information, may prove to be tough competition for Internet companies scrambling to make money by selling access to information. Tracking Internet users is a lucrative business for many Internet companies, which sell information about Web surfing habits to marketers.
Advertisements are another revenue source.
FirstGov managers plan to let nonprofit organizations and government agencies create access points to the portal for free. And GSA has made it clear that any Web site may, without cost, post a link to FirstGov. But most Internet companies are reluctant to do so because it would direct traffic away from their sites. In an attempt to address that concern, Piatt said FirstGov plans to offer Internet companies the option of placing on their Web pages a FirstGov search box that will open FirstGov as a separate page on the user s screen without closing the original page. It is unclear whether that alternative will satisfy Internet companies.