Consumers slightly favored federal government websites over private-sector...

Consumers slightly favored federal government websites over private-sector websites in Q2, said the ForeSee Answers E-Government Satisfaction Index in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1rogCSt). The index “collected more than 234,600 survey responses across 103 federal government websites” in Q2, rating agencies on a “100-point citizen satisfaction scale,” it said. A score of 80 or more is the “threshold for excellence at which a site meets and exceeds citizen expectations,” it said. The overall e-government score in Q2 was 74.8, versus 73.4 for private-sector sites, it said. The Social Security Administration sites “Extra Help with Medicare Prescription Drugs” and the “Retirement Estimator” both received a score of 90, the highest score in Q2, it said. Amazon and Mercedes-Benz scored 88; Apple 87; and FedEx 85, it said. Sixty percent of e-government users said they used a mobile phone or tablet to access the Internet in Q2, an increase from 57 percent during Q1, it said. Thirty-nine percent of visitors “reported having accessed a federal government website using a mobile device, up from 37 percent in Q1,” said ForeSee, part of Answers Corp.