the blog

I've been thinking about Barack Obama. America's got a new President — and some new history. And for the last few months, we've been hearing stories about the new administration.

But what do Xerpi's users think?

I like to think of it as a chance for a fresh perspective. Like everything else, Xerpi users have their own personal set of favorites — and Xerpi's tags gives you a chance to peek in on 'em! (Or at least, the ones that they've made public.) It's been said that a newspaper is a first draft of history. But the favorites on Xerpi let you experience events in an entirely new way. It's unpredictible — and sometimes very special.

I typed "Obama" into Xerpi's search engine, and discovered someone had also created tags specifically for his inauguration. Want to watch the ceremony again? MSNBC's got it covered! And one Xerpi user has discovered "Change You Can Wear" — a web page offering some very hip t-shirts that are riffing on the president's new image. Of course, Xerpi's users found Barack Obama's web site — but they also found his Facebook page. And one blogger had even compared news footage of both John McCain and Barack Obama...dancing. Of course, this web page quickly became somebody's Xerpi favorite too!

And then I got an idea — what would happen if you typed "McCain" into Xerpi's search engine? I expected many things, but none of them prepared me for the "John McCain Green Screen Challenge." Video maestros re-edited a McCain campaign speech, splicing the candidate into footage from Star Trek, Pulp Fiction, and The Big Lebowski. A blog called "Caffeine-fueled" (promising "Slightly Jittery Entertainment") had selected the best videos from a contest suggested by Stephen Colbert. And that became somebody's Xerpi favorite too.

In fact, it looks like that blog's been linked to quite a bit. They've also got a funny post called "Words that I Can No Longer Use Thanks to the Current Election." ("Maverick.") I found that when I searched Xerpi for the word "Palin." Ironically, John McCain's running mate came up seven times more often than our current Vice President, Joe Biden.

Some of the links were negative and some were positive, but I guess that's all part of the fun. (They're somebody's else's favorites — not mine!) And they're all part of this moment in time. When the history happened, what were other Xerpi users thinking about?

Now you know! :)