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Web Leaders Seek More Searchable Government

washingtonpost.com — These days you can Google just about anything, from your favorite celebrity's pet to your boss's middle name. But using the biggest search engine to get information about the government often falls short. Google and Wikipedia will try to fix this Tuesday when they talk to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.

Who dugg this? Made popular Dec 11, 2007

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  • AskAChola, on 12/11/2007, -0/+10All of that information should be accessible. But we might be frightened by what we find....
  • THEROC, on 12/11/2007, -0/+5Homeland Security was created to spy on you, not to let you spy on Homeland Security. Back off Citizens! You are threatening national security.
    Go back to your internets, download porn and let Homeland Security keep you safe from the CIA, errr... i mean the Islamo-fascists.
  • lardoandkeg, on 12/11/2007, -0/+4searchable government, now theres a term.
  • doublehead, on 12/11/2007, -2/+6As if they'd release everything. Not a chance.
  • FirstDigg, on 12/11/2007, -0/+3I think they are more going for is making what already currently exists more searchable, not releasing non-public records.
  • SuperMoses, on 12/11/2007, -1/+3Didn't Bush once say you'd be able to "google your tax dollars"...let's see if they actually follow through.
  • halftank, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2it would help if government web pages actually adhered to web standards - most are hot tabled messes.
  • ricree, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2He's done one better than that. Thanks to Bush, we don't even need to use google to realize that they are mostly being spent on Iraq.
  • Dissipate, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2I'd rather search for 'tax evasion,' 'offshore accounts,' and 'asset hiding.'
  • FishHammer, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2wikipedia isnt trustworthy enough to handle this responsibility. officials will be paying for the "right" information and the rest will conveniently disappear.
  • ronintetsuro, on 12/12/2007, -0/+2Being able to search redacted files - Win.
    Redacted files getting 'hacked' inside of 24 hours - Priceless.
  • mykool, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2hummm, reply to this comment, or make a new one...hummmm
  • joeadk, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1usa.gov
  • inactive, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1Yes, because that is the most salient point.
  • inactive, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1"Part of me is perfectly content with government being bogged down in paper for the next half century." All of me is content with that.

    I say decrease the length of the terms for all elected offices to one year. They spend that much time campaigning, they wont be able to do anything else.
  • Winoria, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1I say good luck with that. It's never a bad thing to have the information available. The government needs a little more accountability with the people these days.
  • ricree, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1I know that the comment was made in humor, but I still need to respond. That would make the government worse, not better. In a system like that, the government would essentially be completely run by non elected bureaucrats. At least now, there is some accountability to voters, but with something like what you proposed any remaining accountability would disappear.
  • hegemonman, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1Please join me in burying rulingclass. Spammer cretin.
  • inactive, on 12/11/2007, -1/+1This would just be way too scary.
  • Televari, on 12/11/2007, -1/+1The question on my mind is how taxpayers would feel knowing their money went into the 'Digitizing' of the government; and of course, into making Google and its like richer than ever.

    For those of us who use the net regularly, it seems like a great idea, but for the rest of the U.S. population it might be a much harder sell.
  • hegemonman, on 12/11/2007, -0/+0Ok, I tried this and it googles just fine. The rapper thing is just from a blog and it looks like it's just pushing something called zypcodes. So stop all your wild-eyed conspiracist ravings, you kook.
  • whataboutdave, on 12/11/2007, -1/+1Part of me wants this. Part of me is perfectly content with government being bogged down in paper for the next half century.
  • rulingclass, on 12/12/2007, -0/+0Redacted files get hacked nightly, friends.

    Just try this little experiment: own both "i rule the frigging world" and "google" as search terms for a single day.

    Tomorrow the traffic will be outrageous but I guarantee that within a week you won't see a trace.

    IRTFW
  • WooWooGirl, on 01/25/2008, -0/+0Yeah, right . Homeland security.
    How 'bout out personal security when "Mother Google" is watching all our habits....

    Scary.
  • gkiltz, on 12/12/2007, -0/+0Dream ON!
    The amount of material now classified has multiplied exponentially, and all declassifications of World War 2 material was ended on Sept 11, 2001. It has yet to resume.
  • hegemonman, on 12/11/2007, -1/+0I've seen you're postings all over luxist and digg today, you insidious meme-weasel, cashing in on the Ron Paul thing and you make me sick. I hope you and your rapper buddies get raided.
  • rulingclass, on 12/11/2007, -1/+0You can google a lot but apparently can no longer Google the search phrase "I rule the frigging world", although ask and altavista still have it. Seems like it got mixed up with rappers.

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