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The Find-It! Rhode Island statewide search engine, known as the RI Government Information Locator Service (RI-GILS), is being replaced by RI.gov Statewide Search. Webmasters who linked to the Find-It! search engine should replace the Find-It! logo and any Find-It! text on their website with the new RI.gov search logo.

Why is the state abandoning Find-It and GILS?

The Government Information Locator Service (GILS) unfortunately has not had widescale adoption nationally. Recently the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced that it wants to withdraw GILS because it is an obsolete standard. Here in RI we have not had the resources to update the search service since its launch at the end of 2000, and as a result the service has not been working optimally as of late. RI.gov developed a new statewide search engine to complement the launch of its new website in May. This search engine will do an excellent job of filling the hole left by Find-It.

Metadata, such as the metatags used by GILS, are still used by some search engines and could help increase page ranking and findability. We encourage webmasters to continue using metatags on web pages, particularly on node/main pages. Key metatags are the title, description, keywords and author (e.g., your library) tags. If you have been using the GILS metatag attribute, there is no harm in continuing to use it. Good metadata can increase findability. Learn more about metadata at Searchenginewatch.com.

Like any first generation tool (e.g., the abacus or the printing press), GILS played an evolutionary role in search technology. Today there are more robust technologies available and Internet users are becoming more sophisticated and expect Google-like relevancy results instead of hierarchical listings of data such as those provided by GILS. The State of Rhode Island therefore concluded that managing an outdated tool such as GILS was no longer justifiable.