From now on out, the primary job of a candidates' web operation is to communicate information to non-supporters. It is no longer primarily to engage people, or raise money--its to reach the skeptical person who is looking up, say, "Chris Dodd" or "John McCain" on Google, and is not going to be moved by slogans until they know what is under the slogan. They will want to know what the candidate did yesterday, and what the candidate has done in the past. They will not be impressed with breathlessness. (This isn't to say there is no role for a supporters' hub, but that its a different role.)
It will be interesting to see which of the campaigns make the jump.
Hillary's "top 10 reasons to support hillary," is the closest I've seen to a recognition of how important this is now. The top ten reasons are shallow and unsatisfying, but the mode is the right one.
Relatedly, which of the candidates will be the first to shed the horrid Stepford Splash?
Splashes for both Romney and Thompson automatically start playing campaign commercials with audio. So not cool.
But kudos to Giuliani and Huckabee for ditching the splash and using the "1-2-3 Steps to Get Involved" design pattern that I believe started with Edwards when they launched last December.
I have been trying over two hours to contact the insurance company for my car to ask a question. How in the heck do quote ask a machine a question. I am about ready to cancel next year because of this. It is so frustrating.
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The stepford splash
While I agree with all of this, campaigns are not likely to shed the stepford splash because it often results in considerable increases in email signups. Yes, a certain percentage will leave the site, but those are people who would have bounced from your homepage anyway. With a splash, your bounce rate on the homepage typically goes down by the same amount as the bounce rate on the splash.
But there are better ways to do the stepford splash. Like Mitt Romney, who uses it to focus attention on a particular event (like Ames, or the YouTube debate). Potentially a better way of doing it is as an interstitial with the rest of the site slightly darkened so that the user can see what's inside.
But splash pages that never change are lame. Obama's is the worst because the signup mechanism is actually flash. Most of the time I click the "skip to site" button before it has a chance to load.