AT&T Makes Online Searches of Government Information Easier and Faster

Business Wire, June 7, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 2002

Fast Search & Transfer's real-time search and information

retrieval solution enables faster, more relevant results

from a wider variety of government information

Want to find a specific tax form or find the nearest Social Security office? Interested in contacting your representative in Congress, or spotting healthcare fraud? Want to apply for a federal loan to start your own business or further your education? Citizens will find it easier than ever to do so on the FirstGov.gov Web site with the enhanced search capabilities deployed by AT&T for the U.S. General Services Administration.

Since the site was launched in 2000, the General Services Administration has continuously improved and enhanced online access by citizens, businesses and government agencies to information located in millions of federal and state Web pages. By using the latest technologies, including FAST Data Search(TM) from Fast Search & Transfer(TM) (FAST), AT&T worked as the systems integrator to provide an outsourced hosted solution, deploying the FAST search engine that delivers more relevant results based on information that changes as frequently as every day, and accesses information stored in a wider variety of formats, such as the increasingly popular PDF files.

"We are pleased to be playing an expanded role in the FirstGov.gov Web portal. We undertook the site's original development work nearly two years ago and ever since have been hosting the site at an AT&T Internet Data Center and providing security services to assure the highest level of availability possible. Now, with the introduction of the enhanced FAST search features we are able to provide a more complete and seamless solution for the government and the searching public," says AT&T Federal Government Solutions President Chris Rooney.

To deliver these enhanced search features, AT&T selected software from FAST. The company's FAST Data Search 3.0 product either met or significantly exceeded all of the GSA's current requirements and offers opportunities to augment the search capabilities - all of which are at the GSA's discretion to introduce as user demand evolves.

"The combined AT&T and FAST team have been able to rapidly deliver a solution that enables FirstGov.gov users to find a wider variety of information within a faster, fresher, and more relevant search experience - all at an exceptional value to the GSA," said Dr. John M. Lervik, chief executive officer at FAST. "This team's vision and exceptional ability to execute in installing our robust, flexible and highly scalable core platform FAST Data Search, has allowed us to deliver the most complete functionality today and into the future for FirstGov.gov."

To make it easier for the public and private sector to interact, government agencies at the federal and state levels are making a vast amount of information available online. Because this information is dispersed across tens of millions of web pages and in a wide variety of file formats, finding the right information is challenging.

The launch of the FirstGov web portal by the General Services Administration in 2000 was a major step forward in facilitating access to this wealth of information. To enhance the effectiveness of the FirstGov portal the GSA has been working with engineers and technicians from AT&T and FAST over the past two months to implement a new FAST Data Search 3.0 search engine that is now providing a more robust search capability.

The index that has been generated by the FAST Data Search software from the federal and state web sites will also be significantly more current than the previous index. While the entire index will never have information that is more than two weeks old, FAST Data Search will be able to refresh the data index by adding information from government sites that are known to change as frequently as every day.

About AT&T

AT&T (www.att.com) is among the world's premier voice, video and data communications companies, serving consumers, businesses and government. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company runs the largest, most sophisticated communications network and is the largest cable operator in the U.S. The company is a leading supplier of data, Internet and managed services for the public and private sectors, and offers outsourcing, consulting and networking-integration to large businesses and government. Serving nearly 60 million consumers, AT&T is a market leader in consumer communications services and operates AT&T WorldNet(R) Service, a leading Internet access service that has garnered several awards for outstanding performance and customer service.

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