Veiled Information Unveiled by Google

Finding certain public information on state sites have always been a problem to the common public. So Google, the hulk of internet search, has joined hands with governments of Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia to make it easier for the public to access information, otherwise labeled as ‘hard-to-find’.

Google informed that it has stuck a deal with the four states to provide free consulting and some software’s within the reach of everybody. The information will be accessible, both via Google and on the states' own sites.

The government had banned the accessing of thousands of public records dealing with education, real estate, health care and the environment. Google wants the government to collapse the technical walls which had prevented Google, Microsoft and Yahoo from providing this information to the people.

"A lot of state agencies view their Web sites as billboards as opposed to dynamic means of two-way communications between governments and their citizens," said Darrell West, a professor of political Science at Brown University. "The problem is that there are some parts of government sites that search engines can't reach."

The partnership involves no financial payments between the two parties, but it is solely aimed to open the huge locks to the doors leading to vast information stored on state web sites, which were previously out of reach of the common public and listed as ‘unavailable’ on consumer web search services.

The information’s have been restricted from public viewing after the twin tragedy, as the government wanted national security. Google’s effort has been lauded by many and appreciated by all.

"The reality is that much information on state Web sites is public, but effectively it's not, because it's hard to find," said J.L. Needham, Google's product manager for public sector partnerships.

The endeavor takes benefit of "sitemap protocol," which makes it easier for Web site administrators to let search engines such as Google move their sites to spawn a list of Web pages on the site.

The protocol developed by Google has been bosomed by other search engines including Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask.com.

Needham informed that no new equipment or refurbishing of accessible government Web sites is necessary.

The search engines will provide all the necessary information when the users will search for the relevant topics, ranging from education to health to property records or regulations.

"This is not really putting more information online as it is just giving users a tool to find existing information," said West, director of Brown's Taubman Centre for Public Policy and author of a 2006 book entitled "Digital Government."

One issue that must be clouding everyone’s mind is the need for security, but the people in the partnership informed that no ‘secret’ information is part of the enhanced state government search efforts.

The information which needs to be concealed from public view will still be behind the curtains. Only the necessary information, on which the people have a right, will be available and easily accessible.

The aim of the American public Corporation has always been to serve the public. "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" has always been Google’s motto.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin have to be credited for co-finding this giant internet search and advertisement engine, which has helped the masses to be in touch with every sphere of life as it is said, 'Everything is now just a click away and within the reach of everybody.'