Obama, McCain websites
October 2, 2008
McCain, Obama web analysis
In comparison, the Obama and McCain websites were very similar in nature. Both featured similar elements. Upon entering the sights, both Obama as well as McCain’s site contained a sort of road block before getting to the actual information one might actually be looking for. In the Obama site, the first page viewer saw was a page giving them the opportunity to give a donation to the campaign. The McCain site featured a video of Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin giving viewers an encouraging speech of sorts for John McCain. In terms of interactive features presented to attract young voters, both sites have multimedia tabs on the tool bar, giving viewers a link to several videos of the candidates speeches. Both sites also feature a tab that is meant to attract viewers of certain ethnicities. For example the Obama website
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
has a tab titled “People” that allows viewers to select an ethnicity to view their Obama’s support for their particularethnicity. McCain’s website features an identical tab, titled “Coaltion” that has the same function. One aspect of Obama’s site that appeals to youth that McCain’s site does not have is a link to music under the multimedia tab. McCains site has no music tab. Obama’s site also features pictures of purchasible items that might appeal to excited youth voters. McCain’s website (http://www.johnmccain.com/ )initially features more videos of McCain events that could possibly attract young voters. The site also features a variety of “photos of the week” for viewers to look over. Where Obama’s site perhaps separates from McCain’s in terms of connecting with use is the presence of a listing of social networks for the sites viewers. These clickable links are are gateways to more information about Obama on several sites such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Myspace’ to name two of the sixteen sites listed. Lastly both sites also feature a tab for blogs, an that relates primarily to young people.
