Have you ever tried to find information on a government website? It’s a daunting task to say the least most times, recently I tried to find out some information about MTO (Ministry of Transportation Ontario) offices in London and was directed to three different pages only one of which was helpful. Why when I can Google just about anything, does finding information on my government seem so troublesome?

That’s what Ari Schwartz and Jimmy Wales have been asking as well. Both are in a Washington Post article calling on governments to be more “googlable” and pass legislation forcing federal government websites and databases to be more search friendly. With four out of five people using search engines to find information online, it’s not a moment too soon in my opinion, but government is organized in such a way that achieving more open and operable sites might be a task that requires more forceful legislation then governments are willing to enact. The majority of government sites are built, designed, and function poorly. Much like some would say, the government itself. And the uptake on these new ideas will be just as slow as the Government.