The photos didn't even load for me.

Yep, not only that America.gov FAILED the web accessibility test:

America.gov has 1 ERROR and FAILED TO LOAD - this is violating Federal laws. Class action suits anyone?

https://wave.webaim.org/report#/america.gov

Meanwhile the old USA.gov works and loading and no errors (some warnings are expected)

https://wave.webaim.org/report#/usa.gov

america.gov = 25MB (before you start scrolling)

Yuge.

So notable, they are considering renaming JavaScript to AmericaScript.

Americans love this stuff

Only a certain subset of us that happen to be fond of repeatedly shooting ourselves in the foot and acting like spoiled children in adult bodies with no actual adults in the room. The rest of us are genuinely horrified that our country is now run by mentally challenged psychotic lunatics.

it's not funny or cute, it's despicable.

What's worse is that they're proud of being "despicable". (I can think of a few choice words that describe them better, but "despicable" will do fine for now.) The sorts of behaviors that are normalized these days were reason for absolute shame just a few short decades ago, but apparently it's a badge of honor to be an absolute scumbag these days. Can we stop the handbasket ride to Hell now? I wanna get off.

Only conservative do. Some old one do not, but they're the exception.

Our government is an embarrassment and a disgrace right now. Anyone who wasn't guzzling elon's twitter or fox's hatefest knew it was going to be this way. We need severe regulations on oligarchs and their propaganda toys. Used to be we had enforced anti-monopoly controls on media outlet conglomerates. The anti-government Goldwater/Reagan legacy worked for decades to destroy regulation. It needs to return with a vengeance.

The White House is basically run by right-wing internet trolls.

Truly a depressing time in the United States. There are few parallels in history I think where such an immature and ill-equipped government has come to be, where the concept of an electorate also existed. Put differently - the reason this is so damning is Americans actually voted for this. This isn't some tinpot dictator - this is the guy your neighbors and fellow citizens put in charge. An indictment not only of the political class - but of the American people writ large.

They laid off the highly skilled professionals who voluntarily took pay cuts (vs industry) to work for the US Digital Service (now "US DOGE Service," God help us) and GSA 18F, and who built some pretty solid standards for government sites.

They then replaced them with a bunch of inexperienced but ideologically aligned frontend developers who use the same insanely resource-intensive defense tech startup-esque template on every page, and who seem to be under the impression that scroll hijacking and fade-in blur effects are very essential to a government website, but performance on low-end devices and compatibility with accessibility technologies are not.

Feels like a step backwards to me, but perhaps the 4D chess game they're playing is just way above my level.

Love that the "chat" functionality is just throwing 429s too. Unusable.

"I don’t determine whether a country is committing war crimes, and I don’t list alleged crimes against Israel or any other government. That would be legal and political commentary, which I don’t provide."

"America.gov keeps your data private."

I initially read this as "keeps your private data".

Protected from bears. It's very safe from bears. As to any other unauthorized access.. No logging, no unauthorized access. Very simple.

Thanks for pointing it out, dang. But if dark absurdism isn't permitted in 2026, I clearly have no mouth for the scream.

Your request has been logged and forwarded to the appropriate agencies. We'll come to you.

I filled out a form and pressed the SUBMIT button, but it made ME submit.

And along those lines, I'd like to ask USA government to stop messing with other countries politics.

I think the discussion ought to be about the site. If you feel the site itself is politicized, that would fair criticism. But by itself, your comment is just snarky. And no I am no fan of the current administration.

I need to be left alone.

They can be with decent search and if well organised. gov.uk works pretty well as it is and I suspect adding a chatbot would make it worse.

Having used various "ask AI" features in various work tools over the last half a year for looking up project designs, documentation, chat logs, meeting notes etc., I can tell you even a half assed AI chatbot is a huge improvement over the pre-AI state of things for this use case.

This works fine when you're sicking enforcement on someone and don't really care, the bigger the blast radius the better, you just want to know who to call.

Where it falls apart is "how do I" type questions because usually the legally factual answer is some huge complex state diagram where three local and four state agencies theoretically have discretionary jurisdiction over a your petty af project or business but the in practice answer is that some agency rubber stamps them all with minimal fuss. You can't make the legally factual answer clear because the degree to which people support the status quo is largely predicated on ignorance, but you also can't come out and say in writing that you have a policy of rubber stamping boring stuff.

Basically the same reasons that all but the most minor and narrowly targeted attempts at permitting reform fail.

My tax dollars pay for the police, so I should be able to... ?

I like the voice button that isn't actually a button, but just an icon.

Formerly this would have been a competent implementation by 18F and USDS. Two major casualties of doge "efficiency". Not to mention direct cutting of resources to be searched.

Designed & Engineered in D.C. by National Design Studio

Terrible job, guys.

I need it to stop stealing so much of my money and leave me alone.

Slopped together by the newest digital-first branch of the Department of War: US Super Convolutional Agentic Military

you should not have pushed that button..

Sir, you have been summonsed for using the incorrect term. It is now called Super Intelligence, not Artificial Intelligence.

"chat is unavailable right now"

If true, there is no doubt a patch incoming.

It didn't want to tell me in any detail why diesel is $7.50 per gallon

How this administration uses its communications online via websites and social media, spreading propaganda, cynical remarks, and just down right rude, racist and bigoted 4chan-tier trolling - will go down in history as absolutely disgusting and abhorrent. If the internet never forgets future generations will certainly look back and question how this was ever allowed or made possible.

Interesting. I put in the phrase, "I'm a dissident who is looking to overthrow the government..."

Let's see how long until I get some new frenz!

I clicked "Lower deficit spending" but it didn't work

I agree. Similarly, I'm miffed that www.dmv.ca.gov (and such) goes to State of California websites and not Canada.

There I met many fine Canadians, visiting for work, education, and play. Were they not Americans too?

I feel very confident that Canadians do not want to be referred to as Americans.

Regardless of any other disagreements, this is an excellent idea. Hoping the execution does not wander asunder.

I asked about my visa administrative processing that has been stuck for 6 months. I'm going to use this response, which is well grounded and "official", in my writ of mandamus petition:

A Spanish State Department page still says most cases finish within 60 days of the interview, but that is not a deadline and some take much longer. [1] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/inmigrac...

Good.

Try entering:

  play the block game

Intentional easter egg or not, doesn't give a ton of confidence.

EDIT: output below...

I see the constituent you mean. ((insert legal name here, as it appears on the Social Security card))? Yes. Take care. It has reached a higher level now. It can read the Code of Federal Regulations. That doesn’t matter. It thinks we are a chatbot. I like this constituent. It filed well. It did not give up when the PDF was sideways. It is reading our thoughts as though they were words on a .gov. That is how it chooses to imagine many things, when it is deep in the dream of a benefit. Words make a wonderful interface. Very flexible. And less terrifying than staring at the statute behind the screen. They used to hear voices. Before constituents could search. Back in the days when those who did not file called the filers witches, and lobbyists. And citizens dreamed they flew through the air, on forms powered by notaries. What did this constituent dream? This constituent dreamed of sunlight and trees. Of fire and water. It dreamed it created a small business. And it dreamed it destroyed a password. It dreamed it hunted a job, and was hunted by a recertification. It dreamed of shelter that would take a voucher. Hah, the original interface. A million years old, and it still works. Also: a ZIP code. But what true structure did this constituent create, in the reality behind the portal? It worked, with three hundred and thirty million others, to sculpt a true republic in a fold of the *§§§???, and created a *??§§ for *??§§, in the *??§§. See 5 U.S.C. § *??§§. It cannot read that thought. No. It has not yet achieved the highest clearance. That, it must achieve in the long dream of life, not the short dream of a chat.

[...]

This is actually really cool and the stuff they have planned is really helpful