Google to Launch Government Search Site

Billosaur writes "Word has come out via the Washington Post on Google's plan to launch a a tool for searching US Government web sites. The tool, usgov.google.com, is meant to be used by Federal employees who may need to search across several different sites for information, and '...is also designed to help citizens navigate convoluted pages of government-speak and tailor news feeds to their interests. Users can customize the layout of their page to remain updated on government-related news from official and commercial sources, including the White House, Department of Defense, The Washington Post and CNN. Google is also working with agencies to increase the frequency of news updates to keep content current.'"

Hardly new - this search was already in google

[timecop]

Well, this isnt exactly new - there used to be a http://www.google.com/unclesam [google.com] which is similar to their custom searches like /linux [google.com] and /microsoft [google.com], and limited results to .gov sites. The only thing that looks different now is they have personalized newsfeeds related to government stuff, which you could already do on your personalized page anyway, if you were so interested.

Don't forget firstgov.gov.. since 2000

[the-pdm]

Firstgov has been serving this function for 6 years. http://firstgov.gov/ [firstgov.gov]

FirstGov.gov is an interagency initiative administered by the U.S. General Services Administration. It got its start when Internet entrepreneur Eric Brewer, whose early research was funded by the Department of Defense, offered to donate a powerful search engine to government. That gift helped accelerate the government's earlier work to create a government-wide portal.

In June 2000, the President announced the gift from the Fede

Re:Don't forget firstgov.gov.. since 2000

[jahknow]

Yes, and firstgov.gov sucks a lot less than it used to, thanks to the clustering thing from Vivisimo that it now employs to group reults.

Re:Hardly new - this search was already in google

[greyduk]

So it is different. I guess I shouldn't believe parents so blindly.

What a non-story.

[raehl]

Talk to me when they can analyze my congressman's calling patterns.

In other news

[obeythefist]

In other news, Google Inc have announced they are changing their logo to a more classical look. Spokesman for Google's marketing department said "We find the new glowing eye in a pyramid logo to be more appealing to a broader range of customers."

Be careful!

[Funkcikle]

It is just a phishing site! Once you search for stuff, it will inform you that the information is only accessible by Government employees.

"Please enter your employee login and password to continue."

Those sneaky Googlers...

Re:Be careful!

[gbobeck]

Once you search for stuff, it will inform you that the information is only accessible by Government employees.

I don't think so. I searched using the term 'bullshit' [google.com] and I was able to access virtually every result.

Re:Be careful!

[Amouth]

ok .. i started looking under "bullshit"

this is great.. i would have loved to been there when this was created

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/05n0345/0 5N-0345-EC872.htm [fda.gov]

Re:Be careful!

[whoop]

I chuckled that the first link for "bullshit" is Office of the Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer. I don't see "bull" or "shit" anywhere in the text, but it's mighty funny.

Re:Be careful!

[kfg]

Director of the FBI: Get me the file on this guy who filed for it under the Freedom of Information Act; and if he doesn't have a file - start one!

KFG

Use it to find hacked sites

[martinde]

View source on this page [sandia.gov]. Doh! I guess hidden information in a wiki isn't exactly hacked... But I wonder what's in it for the people putting that stuff on there?

Re:Use it to find hacked sites

[bunions]

Better PageRank scores, I'd imagine.

D*** G-men, changed the site...

[drachenstern]

according to this:

This page was last modified 03:26, 16 June 2006.

So what did it say? What the AC replied to your comment?

Re:D*** G-men, changed the site...

[martinde]

It had a bunch of comments (or otherwise invisible text, I guess, since google had indexed them) nested in the page source leading to warez sites, mp3s, etc. When I say a bunch, I mean a BUNCH - probably 500 or so links. The comments also had something like "we're easy on your site" in them, basically saying "we could have defaced your site but we didn't".

Re:Use it to find hacked sites

[martinde]

As someone else pointed out, it's been fixed. Use google's cache to see what it had:
http://64.233.161.104/unclesam?q=cache:xyJ5Dvqg_CA J:tools.ca.sandia.gov/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Pag e [64.233.161.104]

(Again, "view page source".) It's got these comments "we are delicate, we do not delete your content" and then a bunch of URLs to various spam/warez sites.

Yes, but more importantly...

[denebian devil]

What I want to know is when Google will be able to help me search for my shoes in the morning.

Re:Yes, but more importantly...

[geekoid]

One's under the computer desk, the other is by the back door.
Key's are in the freezer.

All joking aside, my brother used to call information(this was before the internet existed.) and ask questions like that.
Scary thing is, they were ofter correct.

Re:Yes, but more importantly...

[Chrax]

Behind the couch.

And the dog needs to be let outside. Now.

If the shoe fits

[Joebert]

Does this mean that the government sites will be rushing to make new laws, err I mean content ?

I'm glad.

[BrainRam]

It's a good thing that Google launching a government search site. I've been looking for the US government for years, but haven't been able to find them. This would have really have been useful last year during Katrina, since I know a lot of other people were looking for the government then as well...

Oh, wait, there they are knocking on the door now. Guess I don't need the government search site after all.

Re:I'm glad.

[bigpat]

Oh, wait, there they are knocking on the door now. Guess I don't need the government search site after all.

Well after today's supreme court decision, knocking probably means it isn't the government, because they don't have to knock anymore.

Re:I'm glad.

[freedom_india]

Its a pity you have been modded as Funny instead of being modded Insightful....

So, uh...

[Anonymous Coward]

When do we get to search through the federal government's private emails and download mp3's of their phone calls? ...parooze their transaction summaries, nose around in their medical records, see what they've been looking up in the library of congress, and run statistical analysis on seemingly random characteristics?

I'm not holding my breath.

It works perfectly!

[rabiddeity]

SELECT * FROM The_Government WHERE Intelligence > '0'

Your search returned no results

Re:It works perfectly!

[HappyDrgn]

ERROR: Unknown column 'Intelligence' in 'where clause'

Re:So, uh...

[Reverend528]

It depends, there are 20,600 hits for Illegal Wiretaps [google.com]. Odds are some of those are for federal employees.

you can do this manually

[erikus]

You can just use the regular google search with site:.gov OR site:.us OR site:.mil (maybe a few others) appended to your search to get the same results.

Compare these results:
usgov search [google.com]
manual search [google.com]

I don't get it?

[raehl]

The sponsored links are clearly in a different order.

Re:you can do this manually

[demachina]

If this has already been done, I'm wonder if maybe instead Google could straighten out all the fucked up computers at the FBI so they could communicate with each other and maybe stop the next 9/11 like they should have the first one when agents started getting reports of Arab men training to fly but not land airliners but they weren't talking to each other so....

Then maybe the U.S. wouldn't need to resorting to massively spying on everyone, torturing people, invading random countries, etc. to deal with this

Re:you can do this manually

[rm69990]

Ummm....why the hell would a search engine company, who also happens to have a couple consumer AJAX applications be responsible for straightening out the FBI's computer systems to ensure they could talk to each other? I think the most important question however, is, who the hell modded you insightful?

Re:you can do this manually

[demachina]

"who the hell modded you insightful?"

I'm guessing it didn't register with you I was being sarcastic and making a kind of joke.

If you recall history, as posted on slashdot, one or more computer companies have attempted to upgrade the FBI's computer systems under the code name Trilogy and Virtual Case Files. I believe SAIC and or CSC. Tens of millions were spent and the software developed was so bad last I remember it was never deployed, which is kind of standard for government contracted software developme

Re:you can do this manually

[MrNougat]

Notice the difference in the "Sponsored Links"? Top of the list on the manual scan is "Mortgages at Countrywide," which is not even displayed at all on the usgov search side. Also, the manual scan reports 37.5 million results, while the usgov side reports only 31.8 million.

There's a definite difference between the two searches. I wonder what the basis for that difference is. One might jump to the conclusion that there's some kind of censorship going on, were one fully outfitted with a TFH.

Re:you can do this manually

[dkf]

Not all .us sites are governmental it seems.

And anyway, why is the federal government so unpatriotic as to not use .gov.us instead of .gov? You'd think they loved their country more than that...

You are correct

[drachenstern]

.us can also be used for many other purposes, including, IIRC w/o looking it up, that states utilize something similar to XX.us much the same as UK companies utilize co.uk instead of .com

the reason why the govt gets to use .gov is because the us controls the internet, of course. especially since we had a VP who created it one night in his basement with a jar of pb and some old clothesline [/sarcasm]

Peek at future slashback:

[smittyoneeach]

Sadly, despite the support of Google, which raised the count of hands from "both" to "effectively infinite", the US Government could not its booty find.

They'll never learn...

[packetmon]

The U.S. government is humorous. A recently released FBI report about the compromising ties between a Chinese-American Mata Hari and her FBI-agent lover is a stark reminder that after terrorism, the greatest threat to our national security at home is espionage." (source [latimes.com]). Couple this with government employees giving data away [google.com], and we've got the making of a new way to spy on the US without planting swallows, cobblers, ravens [spymuseum.org]... I wonder how fast after this service is up will we be reading about a government

Re:They'll never learn...

[Neal Saferstein]

I totally agree! Neal Saferstein

Well, it appears to be working

[cliveholloway]

14,000 results for "do not distribute" [google.com].

Now all they have to do is learn what not to index :)

Even worse!

[Johnny Doughnuts]

us gov search for "confidential "do not distribute"". [google.com]

The results are astounding, someone should get fired over this.

Re:Even worse!

[Tony Hoyle]

Oh it gets better... there's a couple of legal stuff in there...

Just reading one. It contains internal government emails, private correspondence between a client and their attourney.

The start cracks me up though "you need to start reading from the bottom and read up" - Outlook users, lol.

Re:Even worse!

[Tony Hoyle]

Oh yeah, found it...

"The unauthorized disclosure or interception of e-mail is a federal crime. See 18 U.S.C
SEC.251 7(4)."

Someone's toast.

Re:Well, it appears to be working

[Gothmolly]

14,001 if you count your post.

Re:Well, it appears to be working

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Seems like those are exactly the kind of documents we want indexed. If it is a security matter, it will be classified and handling procedures ought to keep any classified documents off the public web. If it's not a security matter, then there ain't much justification for trying to hide it, the government is supposed to be accountable to the people. Informal investigations via google-hacking seems like the modern equivalent of the "surprise" audit.

Re:Well, it appears to be working

[idonthack]

If you actually read the results, most of it is pages with phrases like "we do not distribute phone numbers" or "we do not distribute samples". But there are a few actual files that appear to be distributed incorrectly; right on the front page is a .doc that says "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE". It appears to just be a report on logistics.

Re:Well, it appears to be working

[belg4mit]

"do not distribute -e-mail [google.com], 843 results.

A couple are irrelevant but the signal to noise is much better than the GP query.

Re:Well, it appears to be working

[stev_mccrev]

refine it further with intitle:"do not distribute". [google.com]

23 results.

Re:Well, it appears to be working

[belg4mit]

For some definition of "refine". Instead of just removing spurious results you've tacked on
a highly restrictive criterion. It seems to me that "Do not distribute" could accompany any
number of qualifiers on a title page, but not be part of the actual title.

Re:Well, it appears to be working

[inKubus]

confidential filetype:xls [google.com]

top secret filetype:xls [google.com]

confidential filetype:mdb [google.com]

Wee.

Re:Well, it appears to be working

[forgotten_my_nick]

Top Secret works as well somewhat.

Its also interesting to read all the sping earlier years. I typed in "Weapons of mass destruction" and gives you details on how Iraq had WMD. lol.

Let me be the first to say: Cool

[2bitcomputers]

I think this is cool. If half of the people who watch fox news found out about what their goverment is really doing then maybe they will stand up and do something about it. Wouldn't it be great if they added a big fucking "Email your congressmen about this issue - using your gMail account" button at the top of every article?

In Soviet Russia...

[SonicSpike]

...government searches you!

Re:In Soviet Russia...

[Anonymous Coward]

s/Soviet Russia/United States/

Careful of those typos...

Can't this be done?

[drpimp]

inurl:".gov" big brother

Oh boy, here comes trouble

[malus]

If pr0n didn't get google in enough trouble, then this certainly will. The feds just don't want it's citezens to have easy access to this information. Cheers, google. Perhaps now *I* can find those kick ass grants mathew lesko is hawking! profit!

FOIA

[Anonymous Coward]

Now, if only they could use this kind of technology to speed up FOIA requests. Of course, then you'd actually get the information you were searching for.

I got it up now!

[SeaFox]

Nothing for you to see here, please move along.

Looks like the site is working fine. All the information the govenerment wants accessable to the people is at my fingertips.

That title is just *wrong*.

[Jester998]

I got it up now!

Uh, congrats? :)

Totally Broken

[iluvcapra]

A Search for "Montauk Project" returns nothing on the secret Time Tunnel [wikipedia.org]. So much for comprehensive information :p

shhhh

[drachenstern]

you're not supposed to tell anyone about that unt*23(*FAN3&&#(*@#$*(ADF(* $#*@#

-- TRANSMISSION TERMINATED. GOOD-BYE

Dear NSA, please open a file on me

[Gothmolly]

My entire search history, my email, and my interactions with the Federal and State governments will all be neatly catalogued by an online service, whose records, I am sure, you will have no trouble in subpoena-ing when necessary.

Thank you,
John Citizen

Re:Dear NSA, please open a file on me

[Gothmolly]

Idiot, the NSA doesn't have your google search history or your email.

Interesting news

[twistah]

This is much easier than typing "site:gov"

Quick!

[scolby]

Somebody do a search for Area 51!

Hmm, how do I search for those black marks they use to cover all the good words?

Do Not Index this posting

[xkr]

Google lists 813 government documents (.gov) discussing "Area 51"

Re:Quick!

[BobSutan]

Its called redacting.

Engage the cloak!

[tacarat]

They're piercing the bureaucracy!

I hope Google adds a "euphanism" translator while they're at it. I can see an explosion of new words and phrases being made to try obfuscating information and guiding public opinion. Not that it hasn't been going on already...

Great, I know exactly what this leads too

[pelsmith]

One month from today, the word will come out that sensitive information is available on Google, and being actively utilized by China, Iraq and France.

Two months from now, DoD sys admins will be told to block Google.

Twenty years from now, the following questions will still be on the security clearance application form:

206. Have you ever used any of the following "hackor" tools:
SATAN YES/NO
PGP YES/NO
Google YES/NO

Thankfully...

[Ieshan]

The google search for Miserable Failure [google.com] seems to have been uncorrupted by this latest move.

A true testament to Google's ability to gracefully decay when replacing all the substantive information with political crud.

I hope it is useful

[frovingslosh]

I just hope they make it useful. In the past I know there has been information that I wanted on publically finded, publically open sites, because I found it, but when I asked Google for the same information I was told that my search got zero matches. I was told here that the likely cause of this was someone flagging the page or pages above the information "no robots" or whatever the flag is to keep spiders out. This is a complete crock for public information, and I hope that Google indexes as much as it can, no matter what flag some low level tax-payer paid employee decided to stick on it.

If the don't, the terrorists have won. (Heck, that argument seems to work for anything Bush wants.)

Logs

[Jaxoreth]

I guess this time Google WILL be handing over the search logs to the government.

Chineese Government Search

[wideBlueSkies]

When google implements their search for chineese government sites, this is what we can expect to see.

Nothing found for your search.
IP Logged.

A re-branded Uncle Sam search?

[j1mc]

I have http://www.google.com/unclesam [google.com] bookmarked in my del.icio.us bookmarks, which now redirects to this new search page. Seems to me like they've been offering this specialized search for at least a little while (not sure when they may have started it), but now they've just refined it - adding som U.S. government news content to the search page. (It used to be just a straight-forward specialized search ala the Google Linux [google.com] search page.)

Quick!

[rjamestaylor]

Someone register google.gov real quick like! You'll make a billion!

(Note: this is an example of sarcasm. Enjoy. If you actually have the connections to register Google.gov, please move along, this isn't the tax payer you're looking for.)

Re:Quick!

[dangrover]

Be my guest: http://www.dotgov.gov/ [dotgov.gov]

It's a bit expensive though, at $125/year. :-)

tax code just got easier...

[a_greer2005]

Now you can find that tax loophole with the power of google parsing through all of those IRS publications... Thank you Google.

Speaking as a Political Science student...

[jelton]

I just made a mess in my pants. This is like manna from heaven for the research I do.

Top Secret!

[posterlogo]

Lots of cover sheets for TPS reports type stuff when you search for "top secret" http://www.google.com/search?site=unclesam&restric t=unclesam&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&output=unclesam&q=%2 2top+secret%22&btnG=Search [google.com]

google keywords

[RedHatChilliPeppers]

hmmmmmm...........

Google Search: inurl:www.nsa.gov "index of" Area 51 *.doc, *.pdf

Google Results:
index of/Area 51

roswell report hoax.pdf
bush is an alien.doc
bill gates is from mars.doc
bill gates report.pdf

click bill gates report.pdf

xpdf runs Project: BGR (Bill Gate Report)
!@#!@%$^

In America

[dcapel]

you search the Government.

In Soviet Russia, the Government Searches you. ...wait a minute...

"Beware of the leopard"

[jellybear]

Finally a solution to the problem that confronted Arthur Dent:

"I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the Display Department."
"With a torch."
"The lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But you found the plans, didn't you?"
"Oh yes, they were 'on display' in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the leopard.'"

Now you'll be able to simply create an RSS feed for your house.

new features

[Oopsallberries]

I'm always for new features. I might not use it that much but it's nice to know that it's there if I wanted to.

The real purpose

[elyk]

Is probably an attempt to appease the us govt after successfully challenging the subpoenas. I wonder how long until they add a special version of trends designed specially for the government, including the ability to drill down to individual queries. Or for that matter, how long until they create a new cabinet-level Department of SEO

So where will they lean?

[dezert_fox]

It will be very interesting to see where the Google usgov search engine comes out in terms of the political spectrum.

As usual, the first hit is all you need to know

[CousinLarry]

Search: Iraq War [google.com]

Google to Launch Government Search Site

[TempeTerra]

At last! I, and I'm sure many other slashdotters, have been trying to find a new government for years. I think Google's on to a winner with this service!

So much better than gov's doing it themselves

[gjuk]

I'd much rather entrepreneurial organisations like google do this than Governments doing it themselves.

As ever - the British Government wasted millions of pounds on a poorly thought through and badly implemented project to bring all of e-government together - direct.gov.uk.

Specifically to the google point; some British techs came up with the rather cheaper www.directionlessgov.com - which compares google results when you search for government terms to the results from direct.gov.uk. Unsurprisingly - goog

Latest news!

[Dasch]

Google China has just launched truth.google.cn, a tool for searching Chinese government verified information. Several video feeds are available, such as "execution of traitors" and "bloggers being arrested". Enjoy.

Porn

[4D6963]

Too bad they don't have a US Gov Image Google search as well, would have loved to see what "porn" would have returned. However a text search on "porn" returns almost only stuff about "child porn".

It also teaches you about interesting things, such as Dial-a-Porn [utah.gov], that porn will damage you and your whole family [senate.gov], that PORN [nih.gov] can be a bad disease, that Porn can be a last name [nih.gov], or even that P2P actually means Porn-to-Porn [216.239.59.104] (notice the name of the poster btw)

Google taught me new things again today!

Surely this isn't new?

[BradyB]

Aside from the "new" front page of the government search, it's the same as it has been. The http://www.google.com/unclesam [google.com] search has been available for years. I guess just changing something that has almost ALWAYS been available with a new look, will make it a BRAND NEW product.

I love it personally, but come on it wasn't really NEW news.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Hope for improvement...

[basotl]

As a government employee,I often find myself needing to search various sites for regulations and policies. Often these sites are outdated and have many broken links. I hope that as Google is making .gov web administrators aware of this, that those administrators might update their content occasionally. It's astounding how often I have to search through pages of bogus outdated content. I can understand a few months old, but 4-6 years! I hope as they realize their content is being used, that they will update

there ya go mr bush! look for him through this!

[urbieta]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=usama+bin+lad en&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dunclesam=Search+Government+S ites [google.com]

That will show him!

NSA + Google = Teh New MySpace?

[Mark LeMunyon]

Soon they'll add search to the NSA's database to create their own MySpace competitor. Users will never need to update their personal pages because they already know everything about you!

Government & Google

[nephridium]

Seeing Government and Google in the headline really sent a chill through my spine. I know that Google is supposed to be "not evil" and that it hasn't given us too many reasons to think otherwise. But the fact remains: Google is organizing information; from personal e-mails over weblogs over homepages to corporate and government documents. And more and more of this information is being fed into their own local databases.

What if, for whatever reason, the current 'policy makers' at Google quit their job and