About LGDataFinder
Who built this
LGDataFinder was built by Larry Gardner, a retired IT manager with 50 years of experience in the field. After a career spent making technology work for organizations, this project grew out of a straightforward frustration: U.S. government data is authoritative, publicly funded, and often genuinely useful — but the official portals are hard to navigate, even for technical users. The data deserves better access than that.
This is a personal project, built and maintained on Larry's own time and infrastructure. It's not a startup, not a consulting pitch, and not a demo for something else. It's a tool that Larry wanted to exist, so he built it.
Why this exists
Billions of dollars in public data collection are funded by American taxpayers every year. The Census Bureau, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Department of Education, and the U.S. Treasury all publish detailed, authoritative datasets. But accessing them typically means navigating complex query builders, deciphering variable codes, and understanding each agency's data structure.
LGDataFinder wraps those same authoritative sources in a conversational interface. Ask a question in plain English, get a sourced answer. The data comes directly from the same APIs the agencies publish; the AI layer interprets your question and presents the results clearly.
What this site is not
- Not selling anything. There's no product, no premium tier, no upsell.
- Not collecting personal information. No accounts, no tracking cookies, no email capture.
- Not running ads. The site is funded personally by Larry.
- Not affiliated with any government agency. LGDataFinder is an independent project that uses publicly available government APIs.
- Not partisan. The site presents data from authoritative sources without editorial framing. When the data speaks, we let it speak for itself.
How it works
When you ask a question, LGDataFinder routes it to the appropriate government data source, retrieves structured data from that source's public API, and uses an AI model to present the results in plain language. Every response includes a citation to the originating agency so you can verify the data independently.
The four current topics draw from:
- Your County — U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates
- Medicare Costs — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), data.cms.gov
- College Data — U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard API
- Federal Budget — U.S. Treasury FiscalData and USAspending.gov
Additional topics covering labor statistics, housing data, drug safety, and more are planned for future updates.
Contact
Found an error? Have a suggestion for a data topic? General feedback? Larry reads every message.