Texans looking to access Texas.gov, the official government website for the State of Texas, have another means in which to do so with the launch this week of a new app, available for free on the Android Market. Officials said the move was made because almost 40,000 visits to the Texas.gov website were made from a mobile device in the first two months of 2011, with Android users accounting for 37% of those visits.
The Texas Department of Information Resources (TDIR) previously released an iPhone app for Texas.gov in September 2010.
“In response to this growing trend, it is important for us to continuously provide Texans with new tools that allow them to conveniently access government information and services on their mobile devices,” said Doug Holt, deputy executive director of the TDIR.
Users can browse Texas government information and offices, review information about the state, find state agencies and contact information, pull up directions to state offices complete with a map, submit questions or answer the questions of others on the app, and connect with other state communications efforts via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
The nicest feature of the app is the ability to renew or request renewal of certain types of licenses, including driver licenses, vehicle registrations, birth certificate orders, concealed handgun licenses and more.
Texas.gov helps state and local government entities Web-enable their services and operates without tax funds through a public-private partnership between the state and Texas NICUSA, LLC. Texas NICUSA builds, operates, maintains, and markets Texas.gov and is part of egovernment firm NIC’s (NASDAQ: EGOV) family of companies.
Since launching in 2000, Texas.gov has processed more than 130 million financial transactions and collected more than $17 billion on behalf of participating entities. The NIC family of companies currently provides egovernment solutions for more than 3,000 federal, state, and local agencies across the U.S.
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