SOCIAL SECURITY

If you're like millions of Americans, you spent two exciting weeks in August cheering on the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as U.S. athletes brought home more medals than any other nation in the world — a full 110 of them!

Mr. Brown is District Manager of the Social Security Administration's Downtown New York Office.

In fact, Michael Phelps himself brought home more gold medals than anyone in the history of the Olympics. If Phelps were a country, he'd be tied in 10th place with France, Ukraine, and Netherlands for the most gold medals won — quite a force to be reckoned with.

Now, consider this: If there was an Olympics for Web sites, www.socialsecurity.gov would be the Michael Phelps of that competition. Over the years, Social Security's Web site has been not only among the best in government, but the best in all industries.

For example, Social Security's Multilanguage Gateway, our Web site that provides important information to people in 15 languages, received the Standard of Excellence WebAward in the government category from the 2007 Web Marketing Association competition. The 2007 WebAwards named the best Web sites in 96 industry categories. Nominations for best Web site came from interactive agencies and Web site marketing departments in more than 33 countries from around the world.

Just recently, in the second quarter of 2008, Social Security's Web site brought home the gold, silver, and bronze! The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) tracks customer satisfaction and rates Web sites for their performance. ACSI rated three of Social Security's Web sites as the three top sites in government. The Web sites cited were the Social Security's on-line application for extra help with Medicare prescription drug coverage, the on-line application for Social Security benefits and Business Services Online. We expect to take home the medals again — current scores show that our new on-line Retirement Estimator is scoring even higher than those three winners.

Microsoft Corp, with Government Technology's Public CIO Magazine, awarded Social Security the Microsoft Government Solutions Award in the Government to Citizen category. This award is for e-initiatives aiming to enhance government-to-government or government-to-citizen interaction, transactions, and/or services and was given to recognize the Internet Social Security Benefit Application.

Whether you want to plan your retirement or apply for it, look into other benefits available or learn about the history of the program, you can do it all at Social Security's Web site. Visit the Olympian of Web sites: www.socialsecurity.gov.