Subscribe to the Free Print Edition!
Celebrating 25 Years

GCN Home > October 23, 2000 issue

Does your Web site measure up?

Agencies need to focus on citizens, analyst advises

By Susan M. Menke
GCN Staff

The Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “is unequivocally the best practice in the government Internet space.”

That’s the conclusion of Jupiter Media Metrix, which recently studied 81 federal and state government sites.

Preston Dodd, a senior analyst for the New York media research company, said analysts talked to site managers and senior executives and surveyed consumers to determine whether government sites are furthering “e-bureaucracy or e-democracy.”

He said government sites so far serve as an additional channel to disseminate official information, exhibiting “a strong sense of decorum” and trying to unite internal agency efforts rather than focusing on outside users’ needs.


In a survey of 81 government Web sites, a media research company gave high praise to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its site’s flexible services. The Salvador Dali painting, “Hallucinogenic Matador,” appears on the site.


Lack of central integration and fragmentation of funding have kept government sites from adding many features popular on commercial sites, Dodd said. Lists of frequently asked questions are usually inadequate, he said, and the absence of languages other than English “reinforces the digital divide.”

The CDC site, at www.cdc.gov, was the only one Jupiter surveyed that offers the choice of Spanish language content.

Eighty-eight percent of the sites, however, had employment and recruitment information, and about three-quarters of the sites had accessible forms and records as well as kids’ sections.

Because of the fragmented oversight and funding, Dodd said, “the click-overs are confusing.” He criticized the relatively large numbers of clicks necessary to find desired information on government sites, saying the ideal number is just two clicks. After a few click-overs, he said, the page appearance often changes completely or the user may be routed to a different agency’s site.



GCN Popup