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America.gov

778 points · 742 comments · plesiv

  1. maherbeg · · focus · HN ↗
    OK, there's a lot of negative comments here, but this is a great idea at a high level. It really is hard to figure out where to do a thing and it's also very easy to get phished. If they can figure out how to help people get all the services they're eligible for that'll be an amazing improvement for the people.
    1. Rebuff5007 · · focus · HN ↗
      "at a high level" is doing a lot of work.

      I know some companies that at a high level want to "organize the world's information" or "build the future of human connection", yet have done innumerable cruel and harmful things to society (at least in my opinion).

      1. dbbk · · focus · HN ↗
        No, they are right. This is basically just GOV.uk for America, and GOV.uk by all accounts is an incredible success.
        1. kijashdkujdfhas · · focus · HN ↗
          usa.gov is a better resource and already existed.
          1. jryle70 · · focus · HN ↗
            Why is it a better resource? The two don't seem to overlap. Maybe just the name that throws you off?
            1. kijashdkujdfhas · · focus · HN ↗
              They're both portals for information about federal government services. They overlap massively.

              Did you look at usa.gov at all?

              1. jryle70 · · focus · HN ↗
                Try "Help me find affordable housing near me" on usa.gov?
                1. mcmcmc · · focus · HN ↗
                  [delayed]
                  1. shadowgovt · · focus · HN ↗
                    Because Americans are notoriously and demonstrably bad at understanding the architecture of their own government, including the layer-cake nature of authority and responsibility delegation.
                    1. mcmcmc · · focus · HN ↗
                      [delayed]
                2. goodmythical · · focus · HN ↗
                  Type "affordable housing", click "Contact your nearest public housing agency (PHA)"

                  It is less effort and requires less time than america.gov's:

                  Type "find affordable housing near me", wait praying for relevant results, recieve irrelevant results due to my rural isp having flaky geoip, told to click on the same link I already got grom usa.gov or one of three other irrelevant links or call this irrelevant phone number.

                  So my tax dollars are now funding a worse way to get worse results to people who can't use a well formatted site that they won't benefit from because they'll trust it implicitly despite it being demonstrably less reliable.

                  Brilliant.

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