In the past, we also chided the White House for seemingly giving preferential treatment to YouTube over other video streaming services, but it looks like privacy concerns were the main reason for this weekend's switch. Because Google uses long-term tracking cookies whenever somebody watches a video, the White House's web site was breaking the federal government's strict rules about using cookies on government sites - at least until the White House issued itself an exemption from these rules.

As Chris Soghoian notes, the timing of this move is somewhat odd, as YouTube just rolled out a new feature called delayed cookies, which lets those who embed a video decide if they want to allow Google to set a non-session cookie when others are watching the embedded video. However, it seems like this move came just a bit too late for the White House.

Of course, the White House will continue to post the video addresses on YouTube as well, but thanks to this new solution, the White House website will not set a cookie on your machine every time you play an embedded video anymore.

New Player

Even though YouTube is the de-facto standard for web video today, visitors to the White House web site won't have to miss out on most of YouTube's most compelling features. The new player allows for videos to be embedded or to be downloaded as an MP4 file. Videos can also be played back in full-screen mode and feature captions in English and Spanish. Interestingly, the player now also features a new link: 'also available here,' which currently points to the White House's page on Vimeo. While this is nice, it would also be nice if this link actually pointed to the wide range of services that the White House uploads the weekly address to. Another complaint we have is that the new embeds now automatically start playing whenever a page is opened, without the option to turn this off.

Last week, we criticized the Obama administration (and others like Allen Stern and Chris Soghoian have done so before us) for giving preferential treatment to Google. While the technology at the White House is apparently not quite up to par, the federal government in the U.S. should be able to stream videos through its own service at this point without making YouTube its default online video service.

We more than appreciate the fact that the Obama administration is trying to be far more transparent and open than any of its predecessors. However, giving a commercial entity this special treatment simply doesn't feel right.

As CNET also points out, the statement on the White House privacy policy that you can download the videos directly from YouTube without YouTube ever setting a cookie is simply wrong.

Here is the full text of the relevant part of the privacy policy (note that the link in the first paragraph is not valid):

The federal government has guidelines for the use of persistent cookies available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/m03-22.html#20. The goals of the guidelines are to enable the useful functioning of federal websites while protecting individual privacy.

For videos that are visible on WhiteHouse.gov, a 'persistent cookie' is set by third party providers when you click to play a video.  (We may experience some engineering difficulties as the new Whitehouse.gov is posted and reviewed.  We intend, however, to fully enforce the above provisions as soon as possible.  If you are experiencing any difficulties, please contact us.)

This persistent cookie is used by YouTube to help maintain the integrity of video statistics. A waiver has been issued by the White House Counsel's office to allow for the use of this persistent cookie.

If you would like to view a video without the use of persistent cookies, a link to download the video file is typically provided just below the video.

Whitehouse.gov was originally launched in October 1994 during the first Clinton administration. However, the earliest version of whitehouse.gov held in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine is dated December 27, 1996.

At that time, whitehouse.gov - which no doubt looked just fine in Mosaic - was rather sparse and, ironically, Google-like, providing a search function that allowed users to find Presidential press releases, radio addresses, photos, and Web pages.

By mid-1997, the site had abandoned its search functionality in favor of a list of hypertext links. Available resources included the aforementioned press releases and radio addresses, as well as executive orders.

For context, the site also provided links to The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States of America.

Glimmers of Change

As the site supported the second Clinton administration and weathered the infamous whitehouse.com debacle - where visitors seeking the President found an NSFW adult site instead - it remained fairly static.

In late 1998, however, whitehouse.gov went through another major change - this time opting for more of an early Yahoo! aesthetic. In an effort to provide more information to the growing number of people on the Web, the site began to add more and more links to information sources, including an "Interactive Citizens' Handbook," "Commonly Requested Federal Services," and breaking news. This version of whitehouse.gov also marked the appearance of "White House for Kids," a section of the site focused on explaining the presidency to the younger set and "helping young people become more active and informed citizens."

Regrettably, this version of the site also featured the "waving flag" animated gif which would continue to plague Web pages across the United States for years to come.

Navigating Whitehouse.gov

As the administration of George W. Bush took residence at whitehouse.gov in 2001, the site began to show signs of more structure. Most notably, introducing a left navigation for accessing static content, a design choice that opened the main page up to more specific and timely links. This version of the site also marks the introduction of accessibility at whitehouse.gov, allowing users to bypass the image-based site for a text-only version.

Focusing on the Latest News

Following the terrorist attacks in September 2001, whitehouse.gov went through a substantial design change that would remain in place for most the Bush presidency. Over the next few years, the home page of the post 9/11 version of the site grew more and more focused on breaking news summaries, current threat levels, and areas of focus.

Throughout this version, the navigation structure became more and more complex, introducing a more detailed left navigation as well as a top navigation structure. Also of note, Spanish-speaking users were given the opportunity to access some of the information in their native tongue.

By 2003, whitehouse.gov began to resemble a modern news portal, providing short snippets of information with links to the "full story," informational graphics, and the introduction of "Ask the White House," an online form which allowed citizens to "submit questions to Bush administration officials."

The design of whitehouse.gov remained fairly similar - with minor tweaks - throughout 2006. The only addition of note was the opportunity to subscribe to an RSS feed.

Major Design Overhaul

No doubt feeling the pressure from the growing maturity of Web design and the Web-browsing public, the Bush administration launched its last major redesign in 2007.

The last version of the site for the Bush presidency abandoned the portal feel for a more aesthetic presentation of information and links. This version of whitehouse.gov also featured a simplified top navigation structure and a more prominent search function. The RSS feed was moved the top of the page along with podcasts.

Obama Takes Over

And that brings us to 12:01 EST on January 20, 2009 when - riding the momentum of change.gov, Obama's transition site - Macon Phillips, the newly appointed New Media Director for the Obama administration, introduced the new whitehouse.gov.

With an obvious nod to both the latest communications methods and the latest aesthetic, the new site offers a blog with a conversational tone, a number of RSS feeds (NOTE: We've added all of the feeds - six at last count - into one whitehouse.gov RSS feed, if you'd like to follow it), and it validates to XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

One noticeably absent component - at least in our cursory overview of the site - is the Intense Debate comment feature of which we had been so fond on the change.gov site.

What's Next for Whitehouse.gov?

So there you have it. A short visual history of the home page of the President of the US. Having managed transitions through through three leaders - not to mention Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 - the site continues to improve the communications between the Executive Branch and its constituency.

If you're interested in more versions of the site, please visit the Wayback Machine.

What's next? That's anyone's guess. But you've likely got some ideas on how whitehouse.gov could be improved. What features would you suggest for the next version? We'd love to hear them.