Miamidade.gov Ranks as One of the Nation's Best Government Web Portals

Online, September 2, 2009 (Newswire.com) - (Miami, Fla. Sept. 2, 2009)

Once again, Miami-Dade County's web portal has placed high on the list of the nation's best government websites. That's according to the Center for Digital Government, which awarded miamidade.gov second place in its 2009 Best of the Web Awards. Miami-Dade County also received an Honorable Mention from the Center for e-Net, the County's employee portal, which workers use to enroll for benefits, view payroll information and update personal data.

"It has never been easier for residents to log on to our website to retrieve information they are searching for and that convenience and reliability is something our web portal can proudly deliver daily, " Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.

This is the fourth top-five finish for miamidade.gov in the last eight years: 2009 (2nd); 2004 (1st); 2002 (2nd) and 2001 (4th).

Hundreds of participating web portals were evaluated on innovation (30%), functionality (50%), as well as efficiency and economy (20%).

"Competition, as usual, was fierce," said Judi Zito, director of the Government Information Center. "But our common-sense navigation, interactive tools and personalization features kept us competitive. More importantly, it kept our users coming back, again and again," to the tune of 8 million visitors in 2008.

The personalization includes customized content that registered users see when they sign in. Also available: an opt-in for alerts on transit service, recycling day reminders, weekly news and quarterly newsletters like The Scoop, Recovery Update and G2B.

Interactive features include:

* "Share" button and "E-mail Page" features that enable users to pass along miamidade.gov pages, video and other content to peers directly or through social media utilities
* RSS feeds and links to County social media pages like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
* Secure online bill payment for water, taxes, Metropass and various licenses
The County offers three primary ways for residents to access government information and services -- miamidade.gov, the County's self-service channel; 311 Answer Center, the phone service channel; and Service Direct offices, which offer face-to-face services.