On the Jimmy Orr "Ask the White House" Q&A that happened Thursday, there were lots of questions about the White House Web Site (Orr is the White House Internet Director). This question generated a pretty funny answer:
Jeff, from Salt Lake City writes:
What are the most popular sections of the website?
Jimmy Orr
Jeff, it is a mixture of the informative and the entertaining.
Our mission statement is to: Communicate the President's message while recognizing the rich history and traditions of the web site.
Without the two-pronged approach to the site, we're not going to get a lot of traffic which makes our goal ineffective.
Many people come to the site for the policy areas. But many others come for the more "personal" side of the White House. We get a lot of traffic when White House Chief of Staff Andy Card does an "Ask the White House" session -- but we also get a lot of traffic when someone like the Pastry Chef appears.
So, again, it is a balance. And it's a good balance.
Obviously, the news section of the White House is a top destination of our site, which is good. We're seeing increasing numbers on White House Radio -- which is very good. And our numbers on the "Ask the White House" and "White House Interactive" sections are increasing as well.
And on the "personal" side of things (remember we have a two-pronged mission statement), the History and Tours page is always a top section and the big "up and comer" is the Barney page, www.barney.gov. People really seem to like the Barney photos of the day.
It's all about balance.
Dog and pony shows on the policy side, just a dog show on the personal side. Balance.
Of course, there's no specifics on what is really popular. For example, they have a menu option on the site for Issues, with Economy, Iraq, Education, National Security, and Homeland Security. Would be interesting to know how that lays out in page views over 2004.
I wonder if the log analysis information for traffic for the White House Site would be considered a public record and should be available online for anyone?