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The major intelligence agencies in the U.S. have turned to Google to help them better share and process information they have on security threats.

The National Security Agency has purchased servers on which Google provides search technology used to process information compiled by networks of intelligent agents around the globe.

Google is also offering search features for a site similar to Wikipedia, called Intellipedia, were agents can share and post information on a secure online forum. Intellipedia is accessible only to the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and a number of other intelligence agencies.

"Each analyst, for lack of a better term, has a shoe box with their knowledge,"  Sean Dennehy, chief of Intellipedia development for the CIA, told the San Francisco Chronicle  "They maintained it in a shared drive or a Word document, but we're encouraging them to move those platforms so that everyone can benefit."

Depending on their level of clearance agents can log on to Intellipedia and access three levels of information, top secret, secret, and sensitive but unclassified. Currently the site has 37,000 accounts with 35,000 articles making up 200,000 pages, according to Dennehy.

Google's other government customers include the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the state of Alabama and Washington, D.C.

Mike Bradshaw, who heads Google's federal government sales team, says the company sells nearly identical products to corporate clients as it does to government agencies.
"There were some wild accusations," Bradshaw said. "But everything we do with the government is the same as what we do with our corporate customers."