Politicians weren’t the only ones sweating with nervousness on January 20th! No sir! There were some DC geeks who were probably exhausted and very stressed. They were tasked with completely updating the Whitehouse.gov site and making the changeover right at 12pm, DC time. It went from the ‘George Bush Whitehouse website’ to the ‘Barack Obama Whitehouse website’ right at the moment our new leader was sworn in! (Actually, I think the swearing in ran five minutes late, if I heard the announcers correctly.)

My geek flag was flying high witnessing this and picturing the room in which the magic changeover was occurring! I think I was picturing a scene from Jurassic Park – you know that computer room, and how the dishonest guy was freaking out, or later when the cigarette-smoking guy was freaking out, trying to get everything back online. I was also thinking of some of the episodes of RockStartup, when the team at PayPerPost was undergoing big upgrades and they were all stressed! And I’m sure there were dozens of other movie parts stuck in my head, but, I was definitely picturing the scene – with geeky joy and excitement!

Here is the George Bush Whitehouse website:

(The funny part about this is that I actually still have this page open!! I opened the ‘new’ site in another tab, because, I wanted to keep the GB version live for a little bit. A little bit has since turned into days and I haven’t restarted my laptop since! I usually restart my laptop at least daily! And I have no idea why I am so stuck on this. I get really sentimental about things, is all I can come up with – only, that’s super silly, as I actually voted for Obama! LOL!!)

Here is the NEW version of the site, the Barack Obama Whitehouse website:

You will notice, I am sure, that I’ve pointed out the time on the browser. That was in Central time, the time zone that I live in. I meant to actually record (screenshot) the site seconds after it changed, but, I was just so caught up in all the incredible goings on!

I, for one, as a web geek, like the Obama website much better, and I’ve heard (read:read) other web geeks say the same. Obama’s web presence has been infinitely more powerful than Bush’s for a long time, though, so that is no surprise. I mean, come on, he is refusing to give up his Blackberry! I’ve heard (read:read) [I'm such a dork!] that it is some special version, though, I haven’t read extensively about it. I would like to do that and I’d also like to read about ‘The Beast’ – Obama’s official presidential limousine. My son, Shawn, was telling me about it and it sounds totally wicked!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, I’ve dug back into the Wayback Machine and found some old versions of the Whitehouse.gov site! Don’t you just love the Wayback Machine?? I have so much fun with that thing!

Ok, first up, we have Whitehouse.org in December 1996:

Wow! That’s some fancy web design, isn’t it?

Next up, we have Whitehouse.org in October 1997:

Well, that’s a little better! I, at least, like the books background, even if it is all ‘late 90′s’ web design!

And our final display for you today is Whitehouse.org in December 1998:

On this version, you’re not seeing very much, because they figured out how to make a longer page, and those bubbles continue on down the length of the page.

Interesting little journey through web-time. I find it so funny/interesting that even the Whitehouse had a super sucky, ugly site!

If you would like to dig through and look at some more versions of the site over time, you can visit the archive yourself right here: Whitehouse.org archive

Have fun! And don’t look up any of my sites! Especially not MyVeryOwnMail.com – I mean it! Don’t do it! I’m watching you! Grrrr!