USA.gov
Encyclopedia
USA.gov is the official web portal
of the United States government. It is designed to improve the public’s interaction with the U.S. government by quickly directing website visitors to the services or information they are seeking, and by inviting the public to share ideas to improve government. USA.gov links to every federal agency and to state, local, and tribal governments, and is the most comprehensive site in—and about—the U.S. government. While the primary target audience of USA.gov is the American public, about 25 percent of USA.gov’s visitors come from outside the United States.
USA.gov is part of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies in the General Services Administration
(GSA), and includes the Spanish-language web portal
to U.S. government services, GobiernoUSA.gov (formerly espanol.gov). The portals, which are funded by U.S. taxpayers and are offered as a public service, are a member of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies' family of websites that also includes pueblo.gsa.gov (the Federal Citizen Information Center
), Kids.gov, ConsumerAction.gov, and HowTo.gov (formerly WebContent.gov).
announced the gift from the Federal Search Foundation, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Brewer and fellow entrepreneur David Binetti, and instructed that the portal be launched in 90 days.
FirstGov.gov was launched 87 days later on September 22, 2000, during the first-ever webcast
originating from the White House
Oval Office
. GSA and 22 Federal agencies funded the initiative in 2001 and 2002. Since 2002, USA.gov has received an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress.
The name FirstGov.gov was changed in 2007 to USA.gov, in response to user suggestions and telephone surveys.
On July 2, 2010, USA.gov revamped the website to improve user access to citizen services through new mobile applications for on-the-go instant access; public engagement platforms; and the fastest, most comprehensive search function for government information.
USA.gov helps visitors find federal information in several ways: through a search engine; an index of links organized by audience, by topic, and by organization; a database of frequently asked questions; mobile applications; performance dashboards; social media; RSS feeds; and e-mail alerts.
Search.USA.gov
Index
USA.gov's Frequently Asked Questions
Mobile Applications
Performance Dashboards
Social Media
RSS Feeds
E-mail Alerts
Live Chat
A part of USA.gov, GobiernoUSA.gov pulls together all of the U.S. government’s Spanish-language websites and makes them easily accessible to the public in one central location. The site, which was developed by Spanish speakers, represents an outreach effort to some 43 million Americans who report speaking Spanish at home.
GobiernoUSA.gov features more than 900 external links and provides access to more than 125,000 Government pages in Spanish. Although most of the resources are federal, the site also links to Spanish-language content provided by 42 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and local government websites.
Web visitors also can search all federal and state web pages for Spanish content through the site’s search engine, e-mail their questions and receive responses in Spanish, or call 1 (800) FED-INFO for help in Spanish and English. Spanish-speaking visitors can sign up for e-mail alerts in Spanish to let them know when new content is added to GobiernoUSA.gov. The website also offers information on the same topic in both English and Spanish by simply clicking on a toggle button.
(Public Law 107-347, 44 U.S.C. Ch 36). The ICGI drafts recommendations and shares effective practices for federal government information access, dissemination, and retention.
The Federal Web Managers Council serves as the steering committee for the much larger Web Content Managers Forum, an online exchange of more than 1,000 federal, state, and local web managers.
In collaboration with the Federal Web Managers Council, USA.gov also sponsors:
Several years later, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
in August 2005, USA.gov coordinated web-related resources among more than 1,000 government Web Content Managers Forum members. The forum was the only group in place with the ability to develop a coordinated Federal feb response to Hurricane Katrina. It quickly adopted guidelines for federal web managers, such as priority content posted on federal websites would be information related to saving life, sustaining life, and facilitating comprehensive recovery, and that duplication of information would confuse the public and should be avoided.
For three weeks after the disaster, USA.gov participated in daily conference calls among key members of the web forum to learn what the public was asking about most frequently by phone and e-mail. The web forum members categorized the subjects and assigned them to federal websites based on their areas of expertise.
For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
became responsible for all health and safety information related to the hurricanes. The other federal websites then linked to that site for that particular information, using the same terminology across the various federal websites.
The continuing communication among the members of the federal web community allowed them to react quickly and make adjustments easily as they identified new or changing information. In addition, the public could find information more easily because the major federal government sites were all linking to the same sites and using the same terminology.
Finally, the categories identified during Katrina matched information people would be looking for in "any" disaster, whether natural or man-made. The federal web community can now re-use a good deal of the content developed in response to the hurricane crisis, to enable them to be even better prepared when the next disaster occurs.
(OMB) Policies for Federal Public Websites, and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding website accessibility. The site also follows requirements of the Privacy Act
, the Federal Information Security Management Act
, and other privacy and security requirements.
; "#1 in Global E-Government Readiness" in the United Nations'
Global E-Government Readiness Report 2005; "#1 in Overall Federal e-Government" by Brown University’s
Taubman Center for Public Policy; and the "Innovations in American Government Award" by Harvard University’s
Kennedy School of Government.
GobiernoUSA.gov was awarded as a finalist for the Arroba de oro, ("the golden @"), has won the Web Content Managers' "Best Practices" award, and consistently scores among the highest in government or private sectors in the American Customer Satisfaction Index
.
Web portal
A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....
of the United States government. It is designed to improve the public’s interaction with the U.S. government by quickly directing website visitors to the services or information they are seeking, and by inviting the public to share ideas to improve government. USA.gov links to every federal agency and to state, local, and tribal governments, and is the most comprehensive site in—and about—the U.S. government. While the primary target audience of USA.gov is the American public, about 25 percent of USA.gov’s visitors come from outside the United States.
USA.gov is part of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies in the General Services Administration
General Services Administration
The General Services Administration is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for U.S...
(GSA), and includes the Spanish-language web portal
Web portal
A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....
to U.S. government services, GobiernoUSA.gov (formerly espanol.gov). The portals, which are funded by U.S. taxpayers and are offered as a public service, are a member of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies' family of websites that also includes pueblo.gsa.gov (the Federal Citizen Information Center
Federal Citizen Information Center
The Federal Citizen Information Center , originally the Federal Consumer Information Center, is a department in the United States government's General Services Administration...
), Kids.gov, ConsumerAction.gov, and HowTo.gov (formerly WebContent.gov).
History
USA.gov began in 2000 when Internet entrepreneur Eric Brewer, whose early research in parallel computing was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, offered to donate a powerful search engine to the government. That donation helped accelerate the government’s earlier work to create a government-wide portal. In June 2000, President ClintonBill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
announced the gift from the Federal Search Foundation, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Brewer and fellow entrepreneur David Binetti, and instructed that the portal be launched in 90 days.
FirstGov.gov was launched 87 days later on September 22, 2000, during the first-ever webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
originating from the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
Oval Office
Oval Office
The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...
. GSA and 22 Federal agencies funded the initiative in 2001 and 2002. Since 2002, USA.gov has received an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress.
The name FirstGov.gov was changed in 2007 to USA.gov, in response to user suggestions and telephone surveys.
On July 2, 2010, USA.gov revamped the website to improve user access to citizen services through new mobile applications for on-the-go instant access; public engagement platforms; and the fastest, most comprehensive search function for government information.
Structure
USA.gov invites the public to share ideas to improve government through public dialogues and government contests, and Gov Gab, USA.gov's interactive blog, designed to give readers a fresh perspective on how they can use government resources to make their every day lives better, easier, and more fun.USA.gov helps visitors find federal information in several ways: through a search engine; an index of links organized by audience, by topic, and by organization; a database of frequently asked questions; mobile applications; performance dashboards; social media; RSS feeds; and e-mail alerts.
Search.USA.gov
- USA.gov's search engine supports transparency of government information by providing access to government web pages from U.S. federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. Search engine results are provided by Bing but managed technically and editorially in-house. The portal features state-of-the-art navigation aids and high-interest, agency-produced databases such as frequently asked questions, government forms, recalls, and government images. Search.USA.gov is also available on its mobile service. In addition, any U.S. government agency can apply through the USA Services Affiliate Program to install the Search.USA.gov search capability on its own pages, thus allowing agencies at all levels to provide website searching for their own users.
Index
- USA.gov offers an index of more than 10,000 links to official government information. The index is categorized by services and common topics, and can be accessed through five audience gateways: Citizens, Businesses and Nonprofits, Federal Employees, Government to Government (for state, local, and tribal governments), and Visitors to the U.S.
- The index links to diverse, useful, and timely citizen-centered government information and services that can help website visitors apply for a government job, register to vote, e-file their taxes, find government benefits, reserve a campsite at a national park, prepare for disasters, shop at government auctions, learn about visiting the United States, or report an unsafe product, among many other activities.
- The site's policy is to link to websites of the federal government, quasi-government agencies, and those created by public sector/private sector partnerships; state and local governments; and recognized Indian tribes. In rare instances, the sites link to websites that are not government-owned or government-sponsored if these websites provide government information and/or services in a way that is not available on an official government website.
USA.gov's Frequently Asked Questions
- USA.gov's frequently asked questions database contains thousands of answers to the questions the public asks most via USA.gov or the contact center at 1 (800) FED-INFO. For more than 30 years, the contact center has been a source for answers to questions about consumer problems and government services.
- If visitors still cannot find the government information they are looking for, they can call 1 (800) FED-INFO, e-mail USA.gov through the "Contact Us" link on USA.gov (e-mail inquiries receive a response within two business days), or get help through a live web chat service.
Mobile Applications
- The USA.gov mobile apps gallery features product recalls, U.S. Postal Service tools, U.S. Transportation Security Administration's MyTSA, USA.gov Mobile, National Institutes of Health’s mobile MedLine Plus and body mass indicator calculator, Environmental Protection Agency’s ultraviolet index, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s My Food-a-Pedia, National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s alternative fuel station locator and FuelEconomy.gov, Department of State’s America.gov mobile and U.S. embassy locator, EPA Mobile, FBI's most wanted, Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile, NASA app, and Veterans Affairs mobile. USA.gov invites the public to share feedback on apps they would find useful by using government information available on data.gov and usaspending.gov.
Performance Dashboards
- USA.gov's performance dashboards allow the public to take a closer look into the details of government performance by tracking tax dollars, proposed agency rules, federal information technology investments, Medicare fraud prevention efforts, and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds.
Social Media
- USA.gov uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr to distribute timely official U.S. government information, distribute emergency information, announce official government events and observances, share official government photos and videos, and gather feedback from the public.
RSS Feeds
- USA.gov offers RSS feeds to help the public stay up to date on useful government information. "USA.gov Updates: News and Features" announces the new content added to the USA.gov website, while "RSS de GobiernoUSA.gov: News and Updates" announces the new content added to the GobiernoUSA.gov website. "Popular Government Questions from USA.gov" features the most popular questions and answers related to the U.S. government from USA.gov’s frequently asked questions database. Website visitors can sign up for USA.gov RSS feeds, the GobiernoUSA.gov feed, or visit USA.gov’s RSS library for other government RSS feeds.
E-mail Alerts
- Visitors to USA.gov can sign up for free e-mail alerts in both English and Spanish to learn when new content is added to the site’s most popular pages. The pages' subjects range from benefits, seniors, and Internet fraud to hurricane recovery, the arts, and parents.
Live Chat
- USA.gov offers live chat in English, where service representatives can answer website visitors' questions about federal agencies, programs, benefits, or services.
GobiernoUSA.gov
GobiernoUSA.gov features more than 900 external links and provides access to more than 125,000 Government pages in Spanish. Although most of the resources are federal, the site also links to Spanish-language content provided by 42 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and local government websites.
Web visitors also can search all federal and state web pages for Spanish content through the site’s search engine, e-mail their questions and receive responses in Spanish, or call 1 (800) FED-INFO for help in Spanish and English. Spanish-speaking visitors can sign up for e-mail alerts in Spanish to let them know when new content is added to GobiernoUSA.gov. The website also offers information on the same topic in both English and Spanish by simply clicking on a toggle button.
Web best practices
USA.gov actively promotes best practices within the government web manager community to improve the overall quality of U.S. federal websites as well as public access to government information.Interagency Committee on Government Information
USA.gov has a leadership role on the Interagency Committee on Government Information (ICGI), formed to meet requirements of the E-Government Act of 2002E-Government Act of 2002
The E-Government Act of 2002 , is a United States statute enacted on December 17, 2002, with an effective date for most provisions of April 17, 2003...
(Public Law 107-347, 44 U.S.C. Ch 36). The ICGI drafts recommendations and shares effective practices for federal government information access, dissemination, and retention.
Federal Web Managers Council
USA.gov sponsors the Federal Web Managers Council, which the ICGI established in January 2004. The council is an interagency group of about 40 senior federal web managers from every cabinet-level agency, several independent agencies, and representatives from the judicial and legislative branches. The council developed recommendations for Government-wide standards for U.S. federal public websites to comply with Sections 207(f)(1) and (2) of the E-Government Act of 2002 and other requirements.The Federal Web Managers Council serves as the steering committee for the much larger Web Content Managers Forum, an online exchange of more than 1,000 federal, state, and local web managers.
In collaboration with the Federal Web Managers Council, USA.gov also sponsors:
- WebContent.gov, a "one-stop" website for government web professionals that provides guidance and resources to help them improve government websites. It includes information on federal website requirements and policies; common web content practices; staffing and governance issues; website design and usability; and performance measures.
- Web Manager University, which provides government web and usability specialists with a multidisciplinary curriculum that addresses the varied responsibilities of managing government websites. Current courses and seminars include user-centered design, usability, and accessibility; web management and governance; web content and information architecture; search engines; and website evaluation and web metrics, among other topics.
- Web Manager Best Practice Awards, which are given for outstanding federal websites, based on excellence in web content, interactivity, design, usability, evaluation, and innovation.
- Research-based Web Design and Usability Guidelines book, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesUnited States Department of Health and Human ServicesThe United States Department of Health and Human Services is a Cabinet department of the United States government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America"...
. The publication contains detailed illustrations and directions to help federal web managers and developers ensure their sites are usable and follow design guidelines that are based on the latest industry research.
Crisis response initiatives
USA.gov is a critical destination for information during national disasters. After the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States, USA.gov became a major tool for the U.S. government to provide the most accurate, timely, and comprehensive information, resources, and government services available during that crisis.Several years later, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
in August 2005, USA.gov coordinated web-related resources among more than 1,000 government Web Content Managers Forum members. The forum was the only group in place with the ability to develop a coordinated Federal feb response to Hurricane Katrina. It quickly adopted guidelines for federal web managers, such as priority content posted on federal websites would be information related to saving life, sustaining life, and facilitating comprehensive recovery, and that duplication of information would confuse the public and should be avoided.
For three weeks after the disaster, USA.gov participated in daily conference calls among key members of the web forum to learn what the public was asking about most frequently by phone and e-mail. The web forum members categorized the subjects and assigned them to federal websites based on their areas of expertise.
For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
became responsible for all health and safety information related to the hurricanes. The other federal websites then linked to that site for that particular information, using the same terminology across the various federal websites.
The continuing communication among the members of the federal web community allowed them to react quickly and make adjustments easily as they identified new or changing information. In addition, the public could find information more easily because the major federal government sites were all linking to the same sites and using the same terminology.
Finally, the categories identified during Katrina matched information people would be looking for in "any" disaster, whether natural or man-made. The federal web community can now re-use a good deal of the content developed in response to the hurricane crisis, to enable them to be even better prepared when the next disaster occurs.
Model to other government websites
USA.gov serves as a model for other government websites and adheres to all requirements and guidelines for federal websites, including those established by the E-Government Act of 2002, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget'sUnited States Office of Management and Budget
The Office of Management and Budget is a Cabinet-level office, and is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States .The current OMB Director is Jacob Lew.-History:...
(OMB) Policies for Federal Public Websites, and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding website accessibility. The site also follows requirements of the Privacy Act
Privacy Act of 1974
The Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, Public Law No. 93-579, establishes a Code of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about individuals that is maintained in systems of records by federal agencies...
, the Federal Information Security Management Act
Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002
The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 is a United States federal law enacted in 2002 as Title III of the E-Government Act of 2002 . The act recognized the importance of information security to the economic and national security interests of the United States...
, and other privacy and security requirements.
Awards
USA.gov has won numerous awards and media endorsements, including listing among the "Best of..." by Money Magazine, "Favorite Places on the Web" by the Chicago Sun Times, "Hot Sites" by USATODAY.com, "Top 100 Classic Sites" by PC Magazine, and Time Magazine's 2007 "Top 25 Sites We Can't Live Without." It also has won "#1 Federal Government Website—Comparing Technology Innovation in the Private and Public Sectors," by the Brookings InstitutionBrookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
; "#1 in Global E-Government Readiness" in the United Nations'
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Global E-Government Readiness Report 2005; "#1 in Overall Federal e-Government" by Brown University’s
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
Taubman Center for Public Policy; and the "Innovations in American Government Award" by Harvard University’s
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Kennedy School of Government.
GobiernoUSA.gov was awarded as a finalist for the Arroba de oro, ("the golden @"), has won the Web Content Managers' "Best Practices" award, and consistently scores among the highest in government or private sectors in the American Customer Satisfaction Index
American Customer Satisfaction Index
The American Customer Satisfaction Index is an economic indicator that measures the satisfaction of consumers across the U.S. economy. It is produced by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a private company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan....
.
External links
- USA.gov Official Site
- GobiernoUSA.gov
- Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies
- pueblo.gsa.gov (the Federal Citizen Information CenterFederal Citizen Information CenterThe Federal Citizen Information Center , originally the Federal Consumer Information Center, is a department in the United States government's General Services Administration...
) - HowTo.gov
- Kids.gov
- ConsumerAction.gov