New search service for government sites

USASearch.gov has launched a new program that extends its search service to include all U.S.-affiliated government Web sites. The program provides a free search engine that indexes federal, state, local, tribal and territorial government documents. USASearch.gov is powered by search technology from Vivisimo.

The expanded search affiliate program allows managers of government-related Web sites to add new features to their sites, enhancing their usefulness to users. Those features include:

• a free search engine that searches USASearch.gov's 50 million indexed documents;
• news, image and FAQ search results;
• local weather forecasts from the National Weather Service;
• mapping and localization;
• access to Congressional contact information, federal government forms, and information about federal government job openings and federal aid and benefits; and;
• spotlight features on the most popular and relevant searches.

According to a recent press release from Vivisimo, its search technology gives USASearch.gov users easy access to vast amounts of information collected and generated by the U.S. government. "Its intuitive interface ... will help millions of people to get quick, authoritative answers to their questions," says Raul Valdes-Perez, Vivisimo CEO and co-founder.