I was reading a Bank of America Equity Research brief by Brian Pitz and Brian Fitzgerald that referenced recently reported June Web Traffic Trends reported by Comscore. What everyone's talking about is the fact that Google overtook Yahoo! as the #1 site in terms of traffic in Q2. Google had 13.4% year-over year-growth in unique users (were there really that many people that are new to Google?) and 51.3% Y/Y growth in page views, while Yahoo! had only 5% Y/Y growth in unique users and page views were actually down 8% Y/Y. The difference in their growth rates really puts into perspective their respective strengths. In August, we'll see how each company did in terms of customer satisfaction when the annual University of Michigan report rating portals and search engines comes out.
But while Google and Yahoo! are interesting, I saw something that I thought was even more interesting. IRS.gov experiences 336.9% Y/Y growth in unqiue visitors and 411.7% Y/Y growth in page views. WOW.
Think about the impact of that kind of growth! Not only are the numbers amazing, they go a long way to helping us understand the role that the Internet plays beyond YouTube, Facebook and Amazon.
So what could explain that kind of growth? June is well after the April 15th filing deadline, which is usually when IRS.gov sees a surge in traffic. I sure hope there weren't that many late filers! I get an occasional phishing email telling me about some fictitious unclaimed tax refund, but there's no way phishing scams alone would generate that kind of traffic. Some of the traffic is probably because of people going to check on the status of their tax refunds or economic stimulus checks and to determine if they qualify and for how much.
Less than ten years after online government services became truly ubiquitous, it's already hard to imagine not having access to all of the federal, state, and local government information and services that are available to us online.
The truth is that increased online access is a win-win: we get better, easier access to information and services in a far more efficient manner then ever before. One of government’s job is to provide services to citizens and anything that makes it easier for the government to provide information and services or easier for us to access them and take advantage is a huge win in this pursuit.
But there is a second win here as well. The increased use of the online channel allows the Government to provide services and information at a significantly reduced cost. And this is good for all of us – a more efficient government, better use of tax dollars, and increased cost savings.
Now, I know many of us have beefs with the efficiency of government, but just imaging it without the internet? That is a scary thought.
I'll be writing a lot more about e-gov tomorrow when the quarterly ACSI E-Government Satisfaction Index is released. Citizen satisfaction with e-gov services has been slipping for awhile now, and you will have to come back to see if the 100+ federal websites measured in the Index fared any better this quarter.
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