Google eases way to get public data.

Byline: Rod Leveque

May 4--California and three other states are working with Internet search engine Google.com to help make many public records easier to find online.

State officials say more than half the visitors to their Web sites use search engines such as Google to get there. Yet much of the information the state has available online has been inaccessible to popular search engines, making it difficult for casual users to find. Obtain Public Information: Freedom Friday

"Right now a lot of government information is hidden behind databases and forms which we can't crawl," said Google spokeswoman Katie Watson. "Our ultimate goal is to make sure as …