GS# 10186

September 23, 2005
Contact: Mary Alice Johnson (202) 501-1231
maryalice.johnson@gsa.gov

Washington, DC – Have a report due on state flowers, the Presidents, space, government or even the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and don’t know where to look for information?  No problem.  Thanks to a powerful new kids-focused search capability, FirstGov for Kids on Kids.gov will make it easier than ever to find information on all of these topics and many more.

Kids.gov’s new “kids only” search engine will help children, parents and teachers to locate kids-appropriate content on a vast variety of topics across government web sites.

“With its enhanced search capabilities, Kids.gov will make it easier than ever before for children, parents and teachers to find a diverse array of information on all aspects of government at their fingertips and with the click of a mouse,” said MJ Pizzella, Associate Administrator of GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Communications.

“Kids.gov’s new search capability was designed and implemented with kids in mind.  We’re confident that it will be a resource that young Americans will find incredibly useful and enjoy using.”

Developed by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) in partnership with leading private sector technology companies Vivísimo and Microsoft, Kids.gov’s new search capability combines the power of a leading Web Search with an award-winning clustering technology. 

Scanning an index of millions of government web pages, including federal, state, local, tribal and territorial government web sites, Kids.gov will deliver compelling kids-focused content on government-related topics including health, careers, computers, transportation, space, science and math, the arts and geography and many more.

FirstGov for Kids on Kids.gov is part of FirstGov.gov, the award-winning federal portal that provides government information and services to citizens, businesses and other governments.  FirstGov.gov is an integral part of creating a citizen-centric government, keeping in line with one of the five priorities in President Bush’s Management Agenda.  In addition, FirstGov.gov is part of USA Services, one of the Presidential E-Gov initiatives created in 2003.  USA Services delivers information and services to citizens through multiple channels.  This includes the Internet, email, telephone, and publication distribution.  Last year, USA Services reported 242 million public contacts, of which 5.4 million were through 1-800 FED INFO (for telephone and email), 5.1 million publications were distributed through the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) in Pueblo, Colorado and 202 million were FirstGov.gov.

GSA is a centralized, federal procurement, property management, policy development and information provision agency, created by Congress to improve government efficiency and help federal agencies better serve the public.  In this role, GSA acquires products and services on behalf of federal agencies; plays a key role in developing and implementing governmentwide policies; provides services and solutions for the office operations of more than one million federal workers; and encourages a citizen-centric relationship with government by providing a single "point of entry" to the information and services citizens need in a timeframe they can appreciate.  This allows citizens to receive accurate, timely and consistent answers and information, and helps federal agencies better respond to citizen inquiries.