Friday, February 16, 2007

Bloggers flock to Obama's Web site

By Mike Dorning
Washington Bureau
Published February 15, 2007, 8:41 PM CST

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's newly revamped Web site looks a lot like MySpace and Facebook, and that is no accident.

As a presidential candidate offering himself as a generational change agent, Obama is leveraging online social networking in a nearly unprecedented way in yet another clear measure of how the Internet is transforming politics.

he new look of the site, launched this week, invites the user to create a profile for public viewing, complete with an uploaded digital photo. Anyone can create a personal blog. Users also can create their own on-site network of friends and public groups arrayed around any common interest that moves them.

As of Thursday, five days after Obama announced his presidential campaign and the Web site launched, more than 2,400 groups had formed on the site, ranging from the Iowa Union Members for Obama and New Hampshire Firefighters for Barack to the Hip Hop for Obama.

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