The mobile web is not just the playground for big Internet firms like Yahoo and Google. The federal government has access to its resources available to mobile browsers too.
Internet companies race to develop software and services to attract people browsing the web from increasingly powerful mobile phones. They invest time and money into bringing people to the content and more importantly, advertising, that can be offered.
One of the biggest sources of information has been moving bit by bit to embrace what the Internet companies consider a fait accompli: more people will be browsing the web by phone over time. The federal government’s pace to opening up to visitors received a couple of recent boosts.
Resource Shelf picked up on these mobile resources in their current run of posts. US legislative information, including access to the Library of Congress’ Thomas database, hit the mobile web courtesy of USA.gov.
The mobile Thomas portal, provides access to bills & resolutions, Presidential nominations, and treaties, among other details. People can browse bills sponsored by Senators and Representatives in the current Congress, by selecting the individual Legislator.
Another addition by USA.gov’s mobile side links to the available government toll-free numbers. A valid keyword search returns available numbers for an agency.
If society is truly moving toward an overwhelming majority of citizen wireless connectivity, considering how rare it is for someone not to have a mobile phone today, it will be enabled by the quality of information available to people via that connection. It makes sense for the government to keep moving toward that likelihood today.
