Okay, as promised, here's what I think of the candidate's websites in general and use of available technology.
Dean, Kerry and Graham have blogs but Dean's is a true blog. Kucinich, Bush and Lieberman have links to supporters, etc. that I like. Braun has a comprehensive set of links to every kind of organization there is. Bush, Kucinich, and Kerry have links to past speeches. All of them have places where you can donate money. Kerry, Edwards, Dean, Sharpton, and Gephardt have videos. Dean, Braun, and Kerry have a link to Meetup. Gephardt's site looks like it is being run by a bunch of college freshmen. Edwards actually has "Welcome to my website" on his website. Bad, bad. Lieberman's takes a looooonnnng time to load maybe because it is so popular? Joe has a graphic/html that allow you to set up link back to his site. Bush has a neat news script you can use on your website (look over in the lefthand column).
Political websites should:
Be organized. Campaign details (schedules, speeches, issues) in one area. Get involved links (email signup, volunteer sign up, sales of items) in one area, Personal stuff (resume, contact, photo page link, videos) in one area, and places where you can get banners, campaign songs, links for webpages, etc. Use good clean graphics, artwork, and photos. Use all the website technology available. Be personalized. Make it look like the candidate, family, top staff is available for chats, blogs, emails, etc. or use a campaign diary.Be designed for all screen resolutionsBe Publicized.UPDATES: Bustamante finally has a respectable looking site. It does not contain references to his problems pronouncing the word "negro". Contributions can be made out to "Yes on Bustamante Committee". The committee leaves out the No on Recall in its name for some reason.
Democrat Garrett Gruener breaks onto the scene. He has a dynamite campaign website that rates a mention in the California Insider. He is the co-founder of AskJeeves.com, an Internet search engine.
Arnold has a great site up and running now. It has it all.
Did a quick look in at Dean's #1 site to see if I still thought it was number 1. It is a phenomenal campaign website. It gets people involved. Look at it then go to Lieberman's. Lieberman's is okay but has no excitement. Things are happening on Dean's site. They have captured the essence of real campaigning and put it on the web. The web site has meetups, signups, petitions, signups for email, downloads, etc. Then they publicize their numbers to show dynamics. It is cool and it is getting better. It is setting a high standard.
