"This is an important category to monitor as government migrates more business functions, such as forms distribution, registration and e-commerce, to the Web channel," said the ForeSee statement announcing the survey results.

Top-performing sites continue to set the standards for e-government, and one-fifth of the government Web sites measured had superior scores of 80 or higher, rivaling top-performing private-sector sites such as Google and Amazon, Freed said.

"Government agencies that listen and respond to citizen feedback have saved millions of dollars in deflected calls and e-mail inquiries by improving their Web sites' ability to meet citizen needs," said Freed. "It is in the interests of both the taxpayer and government to improve the quality, access and cost-effectiveness of government services by improving satisfaction with government Web sites."

Some of the agencies with top-performing Web sites include the Social Security Administration; the National Library of Medicine, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services; the United States Mint, which is part of the U.S. Department of Treasury; and the General Services Administration.