Revisiting USA.gov

The U.S. government's web portal, USA.gov, may be one of the best resources for nonprofits. If you haven't explored it, go there now and start clicking.

You can get lost at USA.gov just because there is so much information available there. I use the search function to find specific topics and then bookmark the agencies that I find most useful.

Now, USA.gov has added an Image Search which returns graphics and photos from such programs as NASA, the White House, and the National Park Service. Many of these are in the public domain and available for use. When they are "owned" you will need that agency's permission. I found it difficult to find out the status of images I saw but it is still worth the search time.

Another recently added feature is News Search. This useful ocean of information is updated every 15 minutes and aggregates news from hundreds of federal agencies, offices, and state governments.

If you are new to searching USA.gov, head over to the about.com site on web search, guided by Wendy Boswell. She has a very nice article about how to get the most from searching at USA.gov.