Further evidence to back up my column from last week about how the government is really bad at consumer-facing websites — worse than the private sector is — comes from this New York Times article on the front of the business section:
A link from the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that lets owners look up their car by vehicle identification number did not respond all day. Calls to an operator on the agency's hotline — 1-888-327-4236 — were routinely put on hold....
The agency's balky website was set up to be a nationwide clearinghouse for recall information on vehicles registered in the United States. On Tuesday, most functions meant to serve consumers, including looking up the recall information and alerting the agency to potential problems, were unavailable.
"N.H.T.S.A. is experiencing intermittent network issues that are making some functions on SaferCar.gov temporarily unavailable," the agency said in a statement, adding, "We apologize for the inconvenience and encourage you to try back later."