In the Loop

[#1]

Searching For Information on Business.gov - Did You Find What You Were Looking For?

Whether you're just starting up, looking to expand, or in need of quick troubleshooting - small business owners know research is a big part of their job.  There's no limit to the amount of information available, but sifting through it all can seem like a full-time job in itself. 

To help you find the information you're looking for, we'd like to provide some insight into how our unique search engine works, and how it can help you make even better use of your time when you visit Business.gov.   We also want to hear from you, so please share your feedback on these tools by submitting a comment. 

Two special features of Business.gov's search are Recommended Sites and Local Search Results.  Both of the features work automatically whenever you use the search feature based on the type of query you enter. 

Recommended Sites is like your own personal search assistant, scouring not just the Business.gov website, but other federal sites, to find you the most relevant results. 

If you were to search "environmental management" on Google, you'd see more than 59 million results.  With Recommended Sites on Business.gov, we've done the hard work for you.  Our search results page will show you our recommended links, noted by little blue stars next to them and provide a short blurb about what you'll find on that page to help you locate the most pertinent information 

We've combed the site and created keywords for every page, so you'll see similar results for the majority of your searches on Business.gov.

The second helpful feature is Local Search Results, which uses the Google search engine but improves upon it by intelligently reading your query for geographic context (city, state, zip code, etc.) and returning only the most relevant government results for the specific geographic area.

What does that mean exactly?  Well, say you want to know how to start a new business; however, you live in Chicago and the most pertinent information to you would be custom tailored for the state of Illinois, Cook County, and the City of Chicago.  If you've come to Business.gov's Search tool, you are in the right place. 

If you search start a business in Chicago our tool will automatically understand that you only want information pertaining to Chicago and the search results will be filtered to provide you with content from relevant state, county and/or city government websites. In this case, results will be returned from both the Chicago city government site as well as the Cook County government site.

Business.gov's geographic database contains a very long list of state, city and county websites, but our search engine will help you find only the localized content you are looking for.

Remember, you can enter your query followed by a state, county, city, or zip code and our search tool will do the rest!  In case you were wondering, if you type in a city or county that is in more than one state, we'll ask you which one you meant, so don't worry - even a search novice will find their results.

Now that you've learned about these features, try out our search, available on the top of any page on Business.gov.  Let us know what you think and feel free to post your feedback here or elsewhere on the community.  We want to make sure that when you are looking for requirements and regulations on Business.gov you can find what you are looking for, quickly and easily.  Happy searching!

Message Edited by AriM on 07-16-2009 03:48 PM

Message Edited by AriM on 07-16-2009 03:49 PM

Message Edited by AriM on 07-16-2009 04:13 PM

[#2]

I think this site gives out great information. I been trying to look for information from government site for years and it would take days to find something that you have posted on here for all of us to see. hrdwood flooring

Message Edited by NicoleD on 08-26-2009 10:02 AM

[#3]

Thanks for your comment, hardwood.  We're glad to hear that you find the tools and resources on Business.gov helpful!