The world can now peek under the dashboard of U.S. government websites—an analytics dashboard, that is.
A new site, analytics.usa.gov, shows a live, aggregate view of the Google Analytics data for many federal government websites. The site also links to the open source datasets that run behind the analytics dashboard, should you be in a tinkering mood.
The most impressive fact about these stats is that these numbers represent just a portion of government websites—the data is collected from almost 300 executive branch government domains, across over 3,800 total websites. As more federal government websites add the Google Analytics code they’ll become a part of the big data party.
One of the biggest surprises hiding in the big data is that government websites are very popular. Since it’s hard to comprehend really large numbers, here’s a comparison:
With Tax Day coming up on April 15, it’s no shock that most people are heading to IRS.gov for forms, tax code updates, deadlines, and everything else it takes to get tax returns in on time. Recently, the #1 single government page has consistently been the IRS’s “Where’s My Refund?” where taxpayers can check the status of those precious checks.
When people aren’t obsessing over our tax return, people still have money matters top on their minds, especially Social Security.
Once finances are out of the way, people check government websites for weather reports. With this winter’s epic snowstorms in the U.S. Northeast and the multi-year drought across California and much of the Southwest, there hasn’t been a lot of good news for most of those web visitors.
Beyond that, people want both work and play. Those in search of opportunity head to USAJOBS and U.S. Citizenship and Information Services for its details on green cards and work visas. Those looking for an escape from the grind spend go to the National Parks Service to plan a dream vacation or find scenic spots to add to their bucket lists.
Data nerds and code monkeys can get all the details about the analytics.usa.gov dashboard in the 18F team’s detailed blog post about the launch. There, you can also provide feedback, report bugs, and share your ideas to improve the tool, which will continue to grow and evolve.
Government data is becoming more transparent every day. Heaps of praise to the people at 18F, the Digital Analytics Program, the U.S. Digital Service, and the White House for all the inventiveness and hard work that they put into this project.
For more fascinating stats about who’s on government websites, check out analytics.usa.gov.
Lauren Girardin is a marketing and communications consultant, writer, and trainer. Find her on Twitter at @girardinl.
so going to have fun here it will beat Facebook, kinda tired of all the drama!