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A trio of new developments have increased the scope of government's central web portal, Directgov, over the past month.

This has included the incorporation of the Job Centre Plus online service to provide support or people looking for work. Directgov has added pages that include a 'job kit', advice on redundancy, preparing for interviews and identifying strengths and skills.

The government now has a policy that all departments should use Directgov for information and services aimed at citizens and BusinessLink for those aimed at businesses. The first service to emerge was schoolclosures.org.uk, launched in the week that heavy snow forced schools around the country to remain closed.

Lastly, Directgov has become available through the Freeview TV service. An information only version of the site has been downloaded onto digital boxes, enabling viewers to look at text only pages, using menus that provide routes to a range of information No interactive functions are included, but the opening page directs viewers to Directgov's mobile phone service on which there is a degree of interaction.

Source: GC Weekly Magazine, March 2009