OUR VIEW: Partnership with Google good for state

Internet search engines have impacted mankind's ability to instantly research, learn and interact on a scale never seen in history. The amount of information aggregated by sites like Yahoo! and Google is simply overwhelming, and it continues to grow in staggering proportions.

Last week, the states of Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia partnered with Google to make it easier for people to find information on state government Web sites. That's good for three reasons:

1. It promotes open government and reaffirms our state's commitment to keep records available for public viewing through modern methods.

2. It links private industry with the public sector, offering incentives for both.

3. It makes it easier for the average Joe to track down hard-to-find documents and other information that can get lost in cyberspace.

Remember the Dewey decimal system- Can you imagine the absolute joy - and shock - of transporting a librarian from the 1980s to today's era- Students these days don't know how good they've got it.

Google's vision is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," according to Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. "These partnerships are among many that Google is pursuing with government agencies to better serve the public."

As information-gathering continues to improve, it's important that all levels of government keep up with the times. We applaud the state and Gov. Tim Kaine for staying on the cutting edge of technology while promoting the public good.

"Our goal is to provide easy, quick and intuitive citizen access to every government resource," Kaine said. "Google is helping us to achieve it."