Gov searches get Clusty

Clusty Government

Officials at Vivisimo have added a government section to their clustering search engine, called Clusty.

Clusty searches the Web and specified resources to provide results grouped into categories, rather than a long, undifferentiated list.

The new government search, accessible via a link on the main Clusty site or directly through its own URL, searches resources including FirstGov, several think tank sites, other government sites, political and government news sources, and similar resources.

In addition, the engine can search a single document, such as the 2006 federal budget or the 9-11 Commission report.

“The reason for our existence is the belief that people are overloaded with information,” said Saman Haqqi, director of marketing at Vivisimo. “People are bombarded with more and more information, and there is no way to help them deal with information better.”

Funded in part by federal Small Business Innovation Research grants, the company makes money by licensing its products to commercial organizations, Haqqi said. Officials launched Clusty in September 2004.