Governor Napolitano Announces Arizona-Google Partnership

Collaboration Improves Government Transparency and Access to State Websites

Governor Napolitano recently announced a new partnership between the State of Arizona and Google, Inc. to make it easier for citizens to search for public information found in online State government databases.

This partnership was developed as Google and the State recognize that citizens are increasingly turning to commercial search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN to access government services. Prior to this partnership, a significant share of the information on state agency websites could not be found using these search engines.

“Government must be innovative in order to offer the best possible services to their citizens,” said Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, Chair of the National Governor’s Association. “Through this Google partnership, Arizona is continuing to fulfill its responsibility to make State government as open and accessible as possible.”

To improve access to State information, Arizona technology managers have been working with Google to implement the Sitemap Protocol for online State databases. This protocol enables a website owner to communicate the contents of a web accessible database to commercial search engines so that information in the database can be indexed and searched by commercial search engines. Pilot Sitemaps have been implemented at the Arizona Governor’s Office, the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, AHCCCS, and the Departments of Administration, Health Services, Public Safety, and Real Estate.

“The State of Arizona is making it easier than ever to search for public information through the internet,” said State Chief Information Officer Chris Cummiskey. “We are proud to be part of this collaboration to provide important information to the public.” GITA and the Office of the State CIO is the lead agency managing the State-Google Partnership.

The following databases have been made by accessible as part of this pilot:

State Jobs Database (ADOA)
Arizona 2-1-1 Online Databases (AHCCCS)
Real Estate Database (realtors, companies, instructors) (Dept of Real Estate)
Licensed Contractors (Registrar of Contractors)
Licensed Child Care Facilities (DHS)
Licensed Nursing Homes (DHS)
Executive Orders, Press Materials, Public Schedule, etc. (Governor’s Office)
Sex Offender Infocenter (DPS)

While taking the step of opening up more state web pages to search engine users, Arizona has also implemented a pilot custom search engine for state, local, and tribal government agencies in Arizona. The “All Arizona Government Search” is currently featured on the State’s Web Portal www.az.gov.

Google has assisted state officials in implementing these website improvements at no out of pocket cost to the State. Both the Sitemap protocol and the Custom Search Engine are free to implement on government Websites. GITA is currently reaching out to other agencies to develop new Sitemaps.  In addition, the agency is searching for additional opportunities for Custom Search Engine implementations.

“Connecting citizens with their government by offering the public better access to public sector information and services is consistent with Google’s broader vision -- to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said Eric Schmidt, Google Chief Executive Officer. “These partnerships are among many that Google is pursuing with government agencies to better serve the public.”

 

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