New Zealand streamlines Web search

The government of New Zealand has decided to enhance its public Web site with new search software. As a result, the site is said to offer better service to the many citizens who use it as a portal for government documents, Web pages and resources.

Government officials chose the Vivisimo Velocity search platform, in part because of its clustering capabilities that intuitively and visually arrange search results. The solution highlights popular results, filters content and searches information that is not available through other Web search engines; and then clusters the search results by topic and agency, according to a recent press release from Vivisimo. As a result, users spend less time finding the right information and more time exploring relevant topics, the company adds.

Laurence Millar, deputy commissioner of information and communication technologies at the New Zealand State Services Commission, says, "Search is one of the key components of accessible state services. Ensuring citizens can easily and conveniently access government information online is critical to improving New Zealanders' experience of the state services. The search functionality will provide the more than 2 million annual Web site visitors with a wide array of relevant results, such as standard government Web pages, news, images and more."