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USA.gov is the official
web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...
of the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. It is designed to improve the public's interaction with the United States 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 United States 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 Technology and Transformation Services in the
General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. G ...
(GSA). It includes the Spanish-language
web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...
to US government services, USAGov en Español.


History

USA.gov began in 2000 when Internet entrepreneur Eric Brewer, whose early research in
parallel computing Parallel computing is a type of computing, computation in which many calculations or Process (computing), processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. ...
was funded by the
United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...
, 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 Clinton 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 The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
Oval Office The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C. The oval room has three lar ...
. 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 United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...
. 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 helps visitors find federal information in several ways, detailed below. Additionally, 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 USAspending.gov is a database of spending by the United States federal government. History Around the time of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006's passage, OMB Watch, a government watchdog group, was developing a ...
, and to share ideas to improve government through public dialogues and government contests.


E-mail alerts

Visitors to USA.gov can sign up for free e-mail alerts in both English and Spanish, to learn about popular government topics and important services and benefits. The pages' subjects range from benefits, scams, and fraud, and contacting elected officials to hurricane recovery, travel, and jobs.


USAGov Contact Center

The contact center is a source for answers to questions about consumer problems and government services. If visitors cannot find the government information they are looking for online, they can call or get help through a live web chat service.


USA.gov content

USA.gov 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, 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.


Live chat

USA.gov offers live chat in English and Spanish, where service representatives can answer website visitors' questions about federal agencies, programs, benefits, or services.


RSS feeds

USA.gov and USAGov en Español offer RSS feeds to help the public stay up to date on useful government information. Website visitors can sign up for USA.gov RSS feeds, and the USAGov en Español.


Search.USA.gov

USA.gov's
search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...
supports transparency of government information by providing access to government web pages from U.S. federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. The portal features navigation aids and 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.gov search capability on its own pages, thus allowing agencies at all levels to provide website searching for their own users.


Social media

USA.gov uses
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
,
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
,
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
and
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and Instagram to distribute timely official U.S. government information and emergency information, announce official government events and observances, share official government photos and videos, and gather feedback from the public.


URL shortening

There was a
URL shortening URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) may be made substantially shorter and still direct to the required page. This is achieved by using a redirect which links to the web page that has a ...
service, go.USA.gov, that was available to users that had a .gov email address (only .gov URLs were allowed to be submitted for shortening through this service). The service would then generate a random URL followin
go.USA.gov
which would redirect the user to the longer .gov URL stored in the system. This service was sunset on September 18, 2022. There was also a similar service
1.usa.gov
that was also sunset. go.USA.gov now instructs users to post the full link, as in must cases URL shortening isn't needed: "Before looking for alternative URL shortening solutions, you may want to consider if you need a short URL at all. Many social media sites are no longer limiting character counts in URLs. Our research with the public strongly suggests that a URL from your own domain is the most trustworthy. For example, see Medicare’s Twitter feed. If you require short URLs, reach out to the agency’s IT office that runs your website. They may be able to create a redirect URL. There are also commercial URL shorteners available. However, your usage of these may be impacted by policies your agency has in place."


USAGov en Español

A part of USA.gov, USAGov en Español 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. Although most of the resources shared on USAGov en Español are federal, the site also links to Spanish-language content provided by 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, call 1-844USAGOV1 for help in Spanish and English or chat with a representative online. Spanish-speaking visitors can sign up for e-mail alerts in Spanish to let them know about important benefits and services. 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.


Federal Web Managers Council


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 2002 The E-Government Act of 2002 (, , , H.R. 2458/S. 803), is a United States statute enacted on 17 December 2002, with an effective date for most provisions of 17 April 2003. Its stated purpose is to improve the management and promotion of electroni ...
(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.


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 was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...
in August 2005, USA.gov participated in efforts led by the Department of Homeland Security and worked with over 20 federal agencies to develop guidance to communicate response information related to the storm and its aftermath. Agencies were encouraged to coordinate web information to avoid duplication and inconsistencies so the public could quickly and easily find critical information. 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's (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.


Awards

USA.gov has won numerous awards and media endorsements, including: * "Standard of Excellence Web Award" by Web Marketing Association, Inc. 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 Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...
; "#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 Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...
. USAGov en Español was named 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 The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is an economic indicator that measures the satisfaction of consumers across the United States, U.S. Economic system, economy. It is produced by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI LLC) base ...
.


See also

*
Federal government of the United States The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...


References


External links

*
USA.gov en español
– Spanish-language version {{DEFAULTSORT:Usa.Gov General Services Administration Government services web portals in the United States