This paper is a short report of an on-line empirical analysis which was carried out at the end of 2003. The research contained a survey on services and content of 37 Hungarian and Spanish state institutions' homepages respectively, including the categorization of available information, comparing homepage quality (according to the existence of developed services like multimedia), and measuring the level of participation and interaction. Serious Hungarian disadvantages had been found compared to an 'old' EU member country; and in some aspects the disadvantage could be measured compared to the new acceding members as well.