FirstGov Search Engine Wins Federal Computer Weeks Pioneer Award

July 18, 2006
                      
GSA # 10256
Contact: Diane Merriett (202) 501-1231
Diane.Merriett@gsa.gov             

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) today announced that Federal Computer Week has honored FirstGov Search, the U.S. government’s official search engine, with the prestigious Pioneer Award. The award recognizes innovative use of technology in a government program.

FirstGov Search – (http://www.firstgovsearch.gov/) – developed in partnership with Vivisimo, Inc. and Microsoft Corp., is the government’s most powerful search engine. It provides citizens with a single point of access to the vast index of official government information, including more than 50 million federal, state, local, tribal and territorial documents.  FirstGov Search results are timely and accurate because indexes are continually updated.

The FirstGov search engine leverages Microsoft’s MSN Search index and its application of Vivisimo’s meta-searching technology, which are combined to produce an official information resource unique in the government.

“GSA’s Office of Citizen Services has taken another step forward in fulfilling President Bush’s pledge to create a more citizen-centric government,” said GSA Administrator Lurita A. Doan.  “The team behind FirstGov Search should be immensely proud of this honor, which recognizes the culmination of all the hard work that went into creating a search engine that provides citizens with easy access to the most authoritative information on the Web.”

FirstGov will give live demonstrations of its award-winning program at the itsGov “Technology Buying at Year-End” Showcase on July 26, 2006 from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC.

FirstGov is a part of USA Services, one of the President’s E-Government initiatives to provide citizens with accurate, timely and consistent information about government programs and services. USA Services is an integral part of the President’s Management Agenda and is managed by the U.S. General Services Administration’s Office of Citizen Services
and Communications. With USA Services, citizens can get information about the government in English and Spanish on FirstGov.gov, via e-mail, in printed format and by calling 1 (800) FED INFO.

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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 government-wide 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.