How can I effectively use Google to search for federal, state and
Local government bid opportunities (request for quotation)?   I want
to find publicly published bid opportunities for the category
(Dampener, vibration, engine). The answer may be similar to the answer
to http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=175726
But, the solution needs to be for my product.

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Clarification of Question by diverdon-ga on 03 Apr 2004 14:46 PST

What a engine vibration damper does and how they work is described on
my web site www.fluidampr.com . We also build dampers for larger
engines. Many of these engines are used by the dod and other
departments of the government. I want to be able to find out when a
product that I make (or could make) goes up for bid?s.

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Clarification of Question by diverdon-ga on 04 Apr 2004 07:55 PDT

OK, there was a researcher working on my question untill I posted the
above clarification. I had only intended the clarification to make it
easier to answer the question not harder.Is there  some way that my
clarification has made question harder to answer? Please, suggest a
way to get a researcher to answer the question.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 05 Apr 2004 07:07 PDT

Diverdon,

There is an online service that can keep you up-to-date on the latest
proposal requests for dampers or dampeners.  I searched their records
and found 19 bids listed for "dampeners" and over 100 listed for
"dampers" (though not all of them are likely to be engine vibration
dampers).

For instance, under "dampeners", some of the bid titles were:

  
1  Gobo Sound Dampening Panels  North Carolina  03/09/2004 
2  E3 Dampener-Total SB Set-Aside, Qualification Requirements Apply. 
Oklahoma  03/03/2004
3  Overhaul Flutter Dampener  Oklahoma  02/11/2004 
4  DAMPENER, VIBRATION,  Ohio  01/09/2004 
5  DAMPENER, ASSEMBLY  Virginia  01/07/2004 

and under "damper" there were:

1  Damper, Hub, Main Ro  Alabama  03/12/2004 
2  DAMPER INSPECTIONS (5 PGS)  Rhode Island  03/11/2004 
3  Purchase of HVAC System parts; fans, dampers and hoods  Illinois  03/04/2004 
4  FIRE/SMOKE DAMPERS. A JOB SITE VISIT IS MANDATORY  Louisiana  03/03/2004 
5  KAPOLEI HIGH SCHOOL INSTALL DAMPER CONTROL AND RETROFIT DOORS 
Hawaii  03/03/2004

==========

The site includes federal, state and local bid requests...you need to
sign up for the service to see the full bid requests, but you can
search for the titles (as I did above) for free.

Is this the type of information you're looking for?

Hello again, diverdon:

Actually, that was probably me you saw who had the lock on the
question at the time. I was looking into the situation to see if I
could provide a complete answer, but ran out of time so I released the
question in the hopes that another Researcher could give you the
answer you are seeking.

I was able to find several leads for the federal side of the question,
through the federal Small Business Administration website:

http://www.sba.gov/businessop/index.html

If your firm is already registered as a government contractor, then
you can see, for free, all federal government bid opportunities at
this website:

http://www.fedbizopps.gov/ 

There are also for-fee services such as http://www.govhub.com which
purport to provide you (and all of their other subscribers) with daily
updates on new government bid opportunities based on your declared
interests. Some of these businesses, such as http://www.bidmain.com ,
even allow you to search both federal and state opportunities (again,
for a fee). Yet another, http://www.governmentbids.com , even claims
to include Canadian government bid opportunities. Depending on the
volume of sales available in your product space, using one of these
services might actually be worthwhile.

The state ones are where I ran out of time. As you will see from this
Google Search:

://www.google.com/search?q=state+bid+opportunities

each state maintains their own bid process and publishing capability.
It is perhaps for this reason that the aforementioned businesses are
able to be in business, they simplify the daily harvesting of new
opportunities for their clients.

It is because of this last reason that I choose not to post an Answer
to your question; it was my intent, though, to come back and post this
information as a comment to help you. I hope it does!

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

www.fedopps.com holds up-to-date US government contract information.

It provides more contract information than you will find on the
government sites and provides better Services to help you quickly find
what you need. It's much like the fee-paying sites that the google
researcher has pointed out, but I believe it is cheaper.

You can sign-up for a 5 day demo. During the trial period you can
search all government bids published in the last 6 months. You should
also take some time to build your "profile" which will then be used to
automatically locate new contracts that might be of interest and they
will be emailed to you.

You should also find lots of useful information to help you win a
contract once you've found it. And if you don't find the information
you are looking for the staff that run the site should be able to help
you further.

Good luck!