Change has come to America’s Whitehouse website

At precisely 12:01 p.m. EST, the White House Web site, the online bastion of the Bush administration for the past eight years, was updated to reflect President Barack Obama’s assumption of office. “The White House. President Barack Obama,” reads the top of the new home page, which went live even before Obama finished delivering his first speech. “Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. Change has come to America.”

Apart from the formal portrait of Obama, other features of the site have been redesigned, although it contains many of the same features and similar historical information as its predecessor.The new site says it “will be a central part of President Obama’s pledge to make his the most transparent and accountable administration in American history.”

The first blog post to the site, written by Macon Phillips, director of new media for the White House, promises video and slide shows of inauguration events, the Obamas’ move into the presidential residence and the new president’s first days in office.

Almost as quickly, the State Department’s Web site got a makeover on Tuesday, with a photo of Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton at her Senate confirmation hearing, along with a transcript of her remarks there, replacing Condoleezza Rice’s picture.

Clinton has not yet been confirmed, but the revamped homepage includes her new motto for the agency: “Diplomacy in Action.”
On the Net:

* White House Web site: http://www.whitehouse.gov
* State Department Web site: http://www.state.gov

Source: AP