In 'Round
Two' Refresh, New Search Engine Helps Small Businesses Comply
with State and
Local Regulations
WASHINGTON - Small business access to
government information took another substantial leap forward today with the addition
of new state and local search capabilities on Business.gov -- the official business
link to the U.S. government.
Round One focused on significantly
expanded content along with new federal government search capabilities from Google(TM)
that allowed business owners to search for federal information on programs, services
and regulations affecting small businesses.
With today's
announcement -- Round Two -- small business owners can search for information
from state and local government Web sites, as well as federal Web sites, from
a single search box. The new search engine intelligently reads the words a user
types in the search box, and returns only the most relevant Web sites. If a business
owner types in "starting a business in Seattle, Wash." the relevant
results will be returned from the city of Seattle and King County, Wash., Web
sites.* The unique new service improves general search services by delivering
results specific to doing business in a particular geographic area, saving business
owners' time by getting to the right information more quickly.
"These
new search offerings make it easier for businesses to learn about doing business
in specific localities," said Nancy Sternberg, program manager of the Business
Gateway Initiative. "Business.gov improves upon general purpose search engines
by understanding the intent of the user and providing results from the most pertinent,
official state and local government Web sites."
Sternberg
adds, "Try it yourself: Go to http://www.business.gov
and find the box in the upper right that says 'Try Our New Search Engine' and
click 'Read More About Search.' On the next page, type in 'business license,'
type the name of your city, and see the results."
Business.gov
is the official business link to the U.S. Government. Business.gov is managed
by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in a partnership with 21 other
federal agencies. This partnership, known as Business Gateway, serves as an incubator
of technologies designed to improve the delivery of services and information to
the nation's small business community. Business.gov provides a single access point
to government services and information to help the nation's businesses with their
operations.
*In a few instances, small localities block access
to Google crawlers on their websites, preventing full search capabilities. For
more information, contact http://www.business.gov.
