The city of San Diego’s Web site was ranked the fourth most useful site out of the e-Governments in America’s 70 largest cities, which was conducted this year at Brown University. This is the second time the annual survey of city-operated Web sites was conducted by Brown, with San Diego placing first in 2001.

“”We work pretty hard on trying to be one of the top leaders in the nation,”” said Bill Cull, the e-Government program manager for the city of San Diego. “”When we take part in surveys like Brown University’s, we’ll get the feedback from those surveys and try to improve.””

One example Cull gave is the recent addition to the city’s Web site of searching capabilities, a result of findings that suggested that more than 30 percent of internet users prefer using search engines rather than navigation. Cull implemented Google and has had “”tremendous success”” with it.

The rankings assigned to each city were determined through a variety of methods, said Darrell West, the head researcher on the Brown study.

“”We look at more than two dozen different features of government Web sites … that the average citizen would be looking at,”” West said. “”In general, San Diego has made a great effort.””

West cited the site’s exceptional interactive and research features that garnered San Diego such high rankings.

“”Their Web site has a [Geographic Information System] mapping capability, which is interactive so that you can ask questions,”” he said. “”It’s a nice feature for economic development, or for a citizen who’s just looking for some information.””

Once the researchers have evaluated the city’s Web site, it is assigned a numerical score, which determines its national ranking.

Four points were awarded for each of 24 features, with the maximum score being a 96, and then four bonus points could be earned. San Diego achieved a score of 79.3, behind Minneapolis, Seattle and Denver.

San Diego was among the 10 cities whose sites showed a security policy, and 100 percent of San Diego’s city Web sites offered online services, making it tied with Tampa for first place in that category.

The survey of cities’ Web sites, which began two years ago at Brown University, was inspired by the increasing use cities have been making of the growing Internet access enjoyed by their citizens.

“”More and more governments are looking to the Internet to increase performance and save money,”” West said. “”We just wanted to get in on the ground floor and track the progress of e-Governments [from the beginning].””