Join Rudy: Not Just a Brochure Anymore. It's Much Worse Than That.
By Michael Turk, 03/22/2007 - 10:18am

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Rudy Giuliani's campaign rolled out their new website sometime in the last 16 hours and, true to my word, I'm ready to take a look. At first glance, all I could say was "Ugh!" The images are broken, the page has been loading for quite some time, and the "live feed" seems to be a catchy phrase for "stale press releases".

Having tried to dig deeper, all I can say is a) this is the website of a Congressional candidate in outer Idaho, not a Presidential contender, and b) I'd like to tall you more, but most of it is broken.

Click through to "The Buzz", which is supposed to be the campaign blog, and you get a bunch of headlines that kick errors when you click on them, and a number of "views" for the headline, but no obvious way to comment (maybe you can if the story item loads, but like I said, they don't for me...)

The widgets available in the "On Your Blog" section are 253 pixels wide, which is much wider than the columns for such things on most blogs. "Want to help Rudy, just break your HTML to do it!!"

Like The Buzz, the call talk radio feature is broken, so selecting your state doesn't give you the list of cities or stations that it should.

The tell a friend feature is probably the most interactive item on the site. It, at least, lets you customize your message. I'd like to tell you it worked, but like most of the rest of the site, clicking submit gave me an error.

Most of the options to get involved consist of nothing but an option to fill out a form with your name and e-mail address. It's sort of like 1997 all over again on Rudy's site.

I understand this review is somewhat disjointed, but I'm kind of apoplectic. I can't believe his campaign thought this was ready for prime time.

Update: Well, I must have caught the site right at the moment they were launching this morning. Either that or they have the fastest coders on the planet, because most of the broken code I complained about this morning is now working fine.

That being the case, my feelings really haven't changed much. there is so little here that is new or even interesting. The few options for interaction with the campaign are to fill out a form and be done with it. The only option to engage in discussion is to share the reasons you support Rudy (which I suspect are moderated and not likely to appear during your visit).

I stand by my first assessment. This is a website for a down-ballot race. This isn't a website for a guy running for Mayor of New York, let alone President.

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more from Michael Turk's blog | login or register to post comments

Shocked

All I can say is wow... It's a lackluster effort at best. I'm shocked that they are redirecting the domain to an IP address... It's not the worst presidential campaign site I've seen so far, but it's certainly sitting near the bottom.

Then again, do Republicans even use the internet? ;) Maybe their market research has shown them that a strong website isn't something they need at this point. Who knows?

By cdharrison at Thu, 03/22/2007 - 11:45am | login or register to post comments

I actually think it's pretty

I actually think it's pretty good. It's better than that fake McCain face and prettier than Romney's face.

By LKohen4 at Thu, 03/22/2007 - 1:58pm | login or register to post comments

Agree with Turk n/t

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By David All at Thu, 03/22/2007 - 2:15pm | login or register to post comments

i agree with turk too

I actually liked the previous version without any functionality better.

http://www.bivingsreport.com

By Todd Zeigler at Thu, 03/22/2007 - 2:24pm | login or register to post comments

I don't know

Rudy's site definitely had some problems this morning - now looks good to me. Content is really thin, which is a problem. There's no real embrace of social networks (where's FACEBOOK, MYSPACE etc!!!) But everyone liked the design... Definitely looks cooler than McCain's and Romney's. Dems still weigh ahead online tho.

By Ezaydelman at Thu, 03/22/2007 - 2:32pm | login or register to post comments

shocked at being shocked

I had to get an account to make a comment here. My friends like to forward stories about Giuliani and the other usual suspects, and we get a kick out of him and his past in particular. How any many with his record thinks he could have a shot blows my mind - it's ok to remarry and have children you don't talk too, but no way on gays getting married. I could go on for hours, he's been very intertaining to say the least.

When I received the email today and read the story of a website gone to hell, I was excited to see something from 1995, or perhaps with banners everyhwere with ads for cowboy boots and NYCFD hats. I can't see one thing wrong with this site. And that's why I had to register and make a comment. The one thing I hate in politics is when people just flat out lie to make others look bad. We need to keep some honesty in this race. I don't see any reason for you to spread rumors when there is so much he alreay offers us to pick at. It's jerks like you that ruin the process.

Now by the way, either you're looking for a way to be popular today, so you're posting some type of copy of their site, but I found his real site(s)? via domain name : www.joinrudy08.com and www.joinrudy2008.com. I'm not sure which is real, but you're obviously pointing people to somethig that isn't even his site. Does this live on your server?

By rblackman at Thu, 03/22/2007 - 2:52pm | login or register to post comments

Nice comment

I'll let Micah and Co. decide whether the tone and partisan bent of your comment is in line with the terms of use for the site. It would appear to me they are not, but it's up to them.

As for the address, we used an IP address because, at the time we linked, there was no other way to reach their site and they had it forwarded to the location. I have, to ease your concerns, redirected the url above to www.joinrudy2008.com so you'll know we're talking about the same dreadful site.

Addressing your comments, I would say if you think a Presidential campaign expected to spend somewhere between $100 million and $250 million should be doing the same things online that a guy running for dog catcher in Gary, Indiana would do, then I respect your opinion.

I frankly would expect more from the Kraft foods website than I would from a guy selling fruit at an intersection. But hey, that's just me.

For those of us who work in online politics, we understand that Presidential campaigns are as much about innovating and finding new ways to do things as they are about providing a brochure. It's on that front that this site fails.

By Michael Turk at Thu, 03/22/2007 - 3:06pm | login or register to post comments

A little perspective

There's nothing productive in calling people jerks because they negatively review a web site, and I'm not sure what rumors Mike was spreading.

We are a completely nonpartisan site, and have folks from both sides of the aisle writing for us. Check out the About page and you'll see that Mike worked for Bush/Cheney '04 and isn't taking partisan shots here. After checking out some of our content I think you'll agree that we stick to a discussion of the candidates' use of the web, and refrain from the kind of politicking you'll find elsewhere.

It's fine if some people don't see anything wrong with Rudy's site, but a lot of people do. To many of us, it looks surprisingly bad. That's not rumor, that's opinion.

By Joshua Levy at Thu, 03/22/2007 - 5:05pm | login or register to post comments



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