AT&T to power FirstGov

AT&T Corp. won a contract worth $2 million a year to replace the search engine for FirstGov.gov, the federal government's one-stop portal for information and services.

AT&T will use search technology from Fast Search and Transfer Inc. of Foster City, Calif., to replace the Inktomi Inc. engine that has powered FirstGov since it first went online in August 2000.

AT&T's one-year contract has four one-year options. A spokeswoman said officials from the General Services Administration, the Defense and Commerce departments, and independent consultants evaluated the proposals.

GSA said use of Fast Search and Transfer's engine will expand the number of sites FirstGov can search beyond the 51 million federal and state sites indexed. It also will let users search portable document format documents and databases.