Google has a new trick—using its search results to subvert one of its competitors.

Google gets most of its multi-billion dollar revenue through advertising. So naturally Google would want to protect that revenue from its competitors. But using censorship to do so is wrong....

We need to rethink government websites as we know them. This is the conclusion of four Princeton academics: Robins, Yu, Zeller, and Felten. Their points have merit, but the approach needs tweaking.

In summary, Government Data and the Invisible Hand argues that federal websites should:...

Chlorine gas in a D.C. park and airborne lead compounds beside historic Old Town Alexandria—these are just two toxic air emissions among thousands reported in EPA's Toxic Release Inventory.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory is a great example of government data made available for others to make mashups. Last week I coded a simple mashup using EPA's data that makes it easy to find toxic air emissions in your own backyard. Please explore it and let me know what you think! (It is optimized for Firefox browsers.)...

It's official—there is "widespread confusion and lack of understanding" among agencies about federal recordkeeping obligations.

This is a finding from a study conducted by the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The study focused on federal recordkeeping policies for email. But there is reason to believe that the picture is similar for agency web records, because compliance with NARA's web records guidelines is low....

U.S. government works are free of copyright (public domain). This includes all videos and films produced by federal employees as part of their official duty. However, limitations may still apply, if copyrighted material appears in a video.

Based on an extensive review of government video libraries, I recommend the following 11 collections. The video libraries are broken into four categories followed by six tips to improve government videos:

Top News Video Libraries

#1 — DODvClips

Very up-to-date military news in a television newscast format streamed online by the Department of Defense. The site includes several "channels" for top news, interviews, front line stories, and more. The production quality, timeliness, and anchorwoman are professional grade. On the downside: some videos do not have dates, and the "play" and "playlist" buttons are visually associated with the wrong videos.

Production Quality: Excellent!
Update Frequency: Several videos added daily
Accessible?: No—neither captioning nor transcripts...

The agency we trust our national history to is about to let millions of web pages disappear to history.

For the first time since the Internet began, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will not record a snapshot of Executive Branch websites at the end of a Presidential administration.

In a recent NARA memo (NWM 13.2008) a high-ranking NARA official wrote:...

Government officials are receiving some much-needed schooling on how to use the web to improve lawmaking.

The Sunlight Foundation just launched PublicMarkup.org, the first site to collaboratively and publicly "markup" a bill before it becomes law. Markup is when a bill is discussed, debated, and revised by lawmakers, but in this case anyone may participate.

Through this markup process, PublicMarkup.org allows many-to-many communications. It allows concerned citizens to discuss the pros, the cons, the alternatives, and to build off of others' ideas. It is what participatory democracy is supposed to be.

Meanwhile, it is widely-accepted that the federal government's attempt to use the internet for regulations commenting (Regulations.gov) has been a failure....

The story of the decade in the civil service is the impending wave of retirements.

The brain drain at most agencies has already begun and is accelerating yearly. We all know the ultimate solution is to successfully recruit and retain a new generation of civil servants. But how is this possible in a civil service culture that either fears change, young people, or both?

I have already documented the federal government's counterproductive intolerance of Web 2.0 technologies.

But the government's "generation gaffe" is becoming clearer to this blogger....

The IRS isn't exactly using the newest technology, but they are doing a nice job empowering partners to help market the Economic Stimulus Payments for them.

The IRS recently released a collection of marketing materials on their site that collaborators can use to help notify Americans how to collect their rebate checks.

The package includes:

• One-page flyers (PDF)
  
• Envelope stuffers (PDF)
  
• Radio spots in English and Spanish
  
• Logo graphics
  
• Print ads (PDF)
  

It is nice to see such a complete communication plan from the IRS. Every good marketing plan involves collaborators, and these materials really empower other organizations to support the outreach effort.

However, the IRS website needs some work. Following any link in the Economic Stimulus Payment pages is certain to get you lost. Nevertheless, the marketing materials are exemplary.

The FDA.gov homepage is transforming on March 18.

I am happy about this unveiling not only because it is a superior layout and design, but also because FDA did it the right way—they listened to their customers.

They tested the usability of the page and focused on the most important user tasks. They even "sampled more than 188 consumers, health care professionals, and industry representatives and other audiences." Wow!

I am impressed with FDA web leaders. They are working hard to improve FDA.gov by using respected methods, and they even keep in touch with their "constituents".

Following the recent .gov Watch article, How FDA.gov Can Save Lives, both the Medical Director of MedWatch and the Director of FDA Web Communications followed up with positive notes to me. I am happy to report that as .gov Watch recommended, the new FDA homepage features a significantly more prominent section for reporting problems and side effects with drugs and medical products.

FDA says this is only the beginning. The agency has even more plans to improve FDA.gov later in 2008. I am eager to see the results of that work too.

I hope to have a follow-up story soon with more insight about how FDA did the work behind their homepage redesign. I expect FDA's methods could serve as a model for other agencies.