U.S.-based GoDaddy.com, the world's largest domain name service, announced Wednesday it will no longer register new Web sites in China.

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Federal officials have just over three months to establish a website that contains state-by-state breakdowns of available health insurance options.

More daunting, the Department of Health and Human Services has even less time -- a mere 60 days -- to develop a "standardized format" for presenting that information about local premium costs and insurance coverage options to voters online.

Both tight deadlines arrive by way of the comprehensive healthcare reform bill lawmakers enacted this weekend and President Barack Obama signed into law on Tuesday.

As part of the legislation's emphasis on transparency, lawmakers have tasked HHS with the responsibility of consulting with states and creating a central, online health insurance information hub by July 1, 2010.

The bill does permit HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the ability to contract that work out to private firms, and it only requires states to take ownership and amplify those health portals once their insurance exchanges go into effect in 2014.

But the bill's "immediate establishment" clause provides for an interim resource that would help consumers make healthcare decisions while they await the law's many changes in healthcare coverage and delivery

However, the new healthcare law's website proposal could pose an early, key technological challenge for the federal bureaucracy, which has struggled recently to launch comprehensive websites in tight timeframes.

For example, the White House may have launched Recovery.gov in February -- a first for its high degree of interactivity -- just days before the president signed the 2009 federal stimulus into law. But it took federal officials until the end of the year to hammer out its kinks and address its inaccuracies.

Still, an HHS spokesperson told The Hill late Wednesday that the department was already "working hard to implement this bill responsibly"

"One of our chief goals in passing the legislation was to increase transparency and accountability when it comes to health care and to work to ensure that consumers had the information they needed about their rights and their benefits," the spokesperson said. "This web site is an important part of our strategy and we are working hard to ensure we comply with the law."

Google began redirecting its Chinese visitors to its unfiltered Hong Kong search portal on Monday in response to a cyberattack.

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Lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee had no choice but to cancel their hearing on the FCC's National Broadband Plan on Tuesday because Republicans declined to permit the discussion's late-afternoon start time.

Pursuant to long-standing Senate rules, committees may only hold hearings after 2 p.m. if both majority and minority leaders consent to it.

However, Republicans on Tuesday declined to permit the Senate Commerce Committee's scheduled 2:30 p.m. hearing on the National Broadband Plan, as part of their strategy to retaliate against Democrats' use of reconciliation to advance budget fixes to their healthcare bill.

Consequently, the move forced Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) to cancel the meeting unexpectedly, to the chagrin of voters, experts, reporters and witnesses, who hoped to attend the first congressional hearing on the FCC's new broadband roadmap.

The committee has not yet announced when it will reschedule the hearing, at which FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is slated to appear. But a committee spokesperson told The Hill late Tuesday that the committee will try to take up the FCC's broadband plan "as soon as possible after the Easter Recess."

TUESDAY BLOG ROUNDUP:
Euro court rules for Google in trademark case - Juliana Gruenwald, Tech Daily Dose
TJX accomplice gets probation - Kim Zetter, Wired
Americans are taking an interest in healthcare - Nancy Scola, techPresident
Yahoo top ad malware distrubutor, says its not their problem - Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
EC to urge transparency in ACTA talks - Paul Meller, PC World
EU negotiators insist that ACTA will move forward - Mike Masnick, Tech Dirt
Google v. Confucius - Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels, HuffPo
Apple a force to be reckoned with in online gaming - Chris Foresman, ars technica

OTHER STORIES FROM THE HILL:
Survey: Broadband key issue in congressional races - The Hill
Cyber crime bill to penalize hacker havens - The Hill
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo fire back at Australia Web censorship plan - The Hill
'America's Most Wanted' host pushes Obama on database - The Hill

Internet providers, computer manufacturers and a number of non-profits announced today that they have formed a coalition to help increase U.S. broadband adoption in the poorest households.

The Digital Adoption Coalition is comprised of One Economy, Connected Nation, AT&T, Comcast, Dell, Intel, Time Warner Cable and USTelecom, to name a few.  The coalition aims to provide discounted broadband service, discounted computers and digital literacy training to low-income households by working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

One Economy filed an application with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration last week to receive broadband stimulus funding to support the digital training, equipment discounts and project administration.

"We see this as a great opportunity to create these ecosystems when you get residents hooked up to broadband and let people experience the merits," said Ken Eisner, managing director of OE Ventures at One Economy.

If the Commerce Department accepts the coalition's application, it would fund two year's worth of broadband service and digital literacy training. None of the funding would go to the broadband providers, who have agreed to offer free installation and 50 percent discounts on modem costs and service plans.

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Three tech groups are fearful the Senate's forthcoming cybersecurity bill might prove so bureaucratic that they will not be able to innovate -- much less respond to emerging online threats -- as quickly as they would like.

In a letter Tuesday to Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the bill's authors, TechAmerica, the Business Software Alliance and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC) asked the lawmakers to address those concerns in time for the bill's debut before the Senate Commerce Committee, which Rockefeller and Snowe chair.

For the most part, the groups did praise the bill's overarching goals, as well as the two lawmakers' willingness to work with private groups on possible edits. Still, they stressed the bill as-is would create many new bureaucratic hurdles that ultimately undermine Rockefeller and Snowe's hard work.

The three associations aired two chief criticisms in their letter, both stemming from the bill's means of setting up new standards for cybersecurity professionals and new technologies.

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"America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh stars in the following video to describe the power of the Internet in tracking down criminals.

He said the show's website alone has helped catch 40 fugitives. And while the Web has become a haven for some criminals, he said it has also become a crime-fighting tool. The video is part of Broadband for America's series about how the Web has changed our lives.

Walsh's own son, Adam, was abducted from a shopping mall when he was 6 years old. Three years ago, President George W. Bush passsed the Adam Walsh Act to create a National Sexual Offender Registry--an online database that would hold the names of over 100,000 convicted rapists and sexual predators. But the government has not appropriated the necessary funds to create the database.

President Barack Obama said he will work with Congress to make the funds available to the states.

Nearly half of American voters say they'd be more likely to vote for their member of Congress if they supported investing in broadband improvements, according to the results of a Zogby International poll released today.

Zogby surveyed 4,143 likely voters earlier this month about a range of technology-oriented issues.

According to the results, 91 percent of the respondents believe that broadband access is somewhat or very important to their lives.

And 43 percent said a commitment to broadband investment in their regions would win their votes in upcoming congressional races. Still, 27 percent of those surveyed said it isn't a priority for their vote.

About 60 percent of voters said the federal government "should play an aggressive role through more direct funding and tax breaks" to help foster a faster Internet.

Meanwhile, 31 percent of the respondents said "the federal government should stay out of it and let the private sector drive the development."