Tony Miller, Director of Cultural Services at Brighton and Hove City Council. © 24 Hour Museum.

A unique collaboration between Brighton & Hove City Council and Internet search engine provider Google has resulted in a new city-focused search engine providing information on everything from health care to heritage.

Built using off the shelf Google technology, the Place To Be search engine will allow people living in, working in and visiting Brighton and Hove to access information from one source that is specific to the city.

At a launch at the city’s Jubilee Library on June 30 2005 Tony Miller, Director of Cultural Services, Brighton and Hove City Council said: “We realised that Google offer an excellent product and now we’ve put together something that’s a truly linear approach to accessing the information the city possesses.”

© 24 Hour Museum.

www.p2b.net also ‘power searches’ on key local websites, creating a local network whilst making information more accessible. “If knowledge really is power, then here in Brighton and Hove we are doing all we can to share that power,” added Tony.

Other speakers at the event included Roberto Solimene, Director of Eurpean Sales at Google, Cllr Sue John, Deputy Leader (Partnership, Culture and Tourism) Brighton and Hove City Council and Tony Teehan from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. All of them praised the initiative as being the ‘first of its kind in the UK.’

The seeds of the project were planted after the successful campaign for city status at the turn of the millennium, called The Place To Be. Several of the organizations involved in that campaign agreed to continue the momentum and build a new website about the city.

Roberto from Google praises the innovative partnership project. © 24 Hour Museum.

A not for profit programme, the collaboration involved eight partners who are: Brighton and Hove City Council, Brighton and Hove Primary Care Trust (NHS), the University of Brighton, Sussex Community Internet Project (SCIP), the University of Sussex, The Argus/Newsquest Sussex, Virtual Brighton and Hove and Wired Sussex.

The search engine aims to improve the quality of life in Brighton and Hove through better information provision. The Government’s Invest to Save Budget provided funds to help set up the project, with another £100,000 coming as funding in kind from partners.

Currently funded until February 2008, the search engine will be managed by SCIP. New partners are encouraged to register an interest at www.p2b.net or contact Mark Walker at SCIP at mark@scip.org.uk.