http://www.firstgovsearch.gov/
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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http://www.firstgovsearch.gov/
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 Clay’s chart: http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginechart.pdf
Supplies Primary Results Supplies Directory Results
Supplies Secondary Results or other info 6 Supplies Paid Results
http://www.firstgovsearch.gov/
Directories
Open Directory Looksmart Business.com About.com Ask.com Gigablast Wisenut Entireweb FindWhat Kanoodle Looksmart
Looksmart About.com
Open Directory Looksmart
Indexes
Google Yahoo MSN Ask.com Google Looksmart
MSN Ask.com Gigablast Wisenut + News Sources Google
Paid Listings
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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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http://www.firstgovsearch.gov/
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 (Dynamic Categorization)
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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http://www.firstgovsearch.gov/
Contact Information
Bob Keating Search Program Manager robert.keating@gsa.gov (202) 208-1047
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