Obama gets a new Web site

By Jose Antonio Vargas and Sarah Cohen • THE WASHINGTON POST • January 22, 2009 WASHINGTON — For the second time in U.S. history, the president's online portal switched owners. Out went the photographs of former president George W. Bush, which were posted until noon Tuesday. As the government officially changed hands, the presidential Web site WhiteHouse.gov began to serve the online vision and agenda of President Barack Obama. According to the site's first blog post, by Macon Phillips, a veteran of Obama's campaign and now the White House's new-media director, WhiteHouse.gov "will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the restof the nation and the world." The top three priorities of the site, Phillips wrote, are "communication," "transparency" and "participation" — buzz words in online social networking circles.