georgia.gov Named One of Nation's Best State Web Sites

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue announced today that Georgia's web portal, www.georgia.gov, was named one of the top state web sites in the nation.  A study by the National Policy Research Council (NPRC) gives Georgia a grade of B+. Only five states received a better grade in the rankings, which are reported in the February 2007 issue of Governing magazine.

"The Georgia Technology Authority has made tremendous strides in making state government more accessible to its customers," said Governor Sonny Perdue.  "The portal team has made substantial changes to the web site and the ranking shows that the improvements are working."

The study is based on the examination of more than 11,000 government web sites.  The study grades sites based on 25 criteria in seven categories: usability, citizen responsiveness, accessibility for disabled visitors, information tools, online procurement, job opportunities and interactive permits and payments.

This is the first year for the NPRC rankings. After being ranked 38th in a Brown University study of state web sites last year, a GTA-led portal improvement team of state government web specialists has worked to identify areas of improvement.

"GTA is following Governor Perdue's lead in making state government more customer-friendly," GTA Executive Director Patrick Moore said. "GTA's portal improvement team is working hard to make georgia.gov a premier web site for access to government services.   We have more work to do, but we are making progress."

Some of the improvements to the georgia.gov web portal over the past year include: