Candidates pack info onto Web

NEW YORK — Campaign blogs and Internet fund-raising? So yesterday!

By now I expect much more from the Web sites of presidential hopefuls.

True, there's been a slathering of innovation: event calendars, voter registration tools, automated feeds.

With great technology, however, comes complexity, a potential turnoff for voters if they're visiting only to learn more about a candidate.

Ease and feature-richness do not necessarily go hand in hand.

Howard Dean's campaign is rightly credited as a technology pioneer. His site was the first to carry an official Web journal, or blog, and the first to embrace Meetup.com, which helps connect supporters. Dean also raised millions of dollars using the Internet.

Others are doing all that now, yet Dean continues to innovate.

His site is one of only two to let supporters add unofficial events to a searchable calendar. (Wesley Clark's is the other; President Bush's campaign site requires approval before posting).

Dean's site, along with Bush's, also has a tool for generating a voter registration form with your name and other details already filled in. It's a PDF file you can print out and mail to election officials. Others merely link to external sites to get blank forms, if at all.

The former Vermont governor is alone in offering campaign alerts and discussion groups via cell phones, and while several candidates offer automatic delivery of new blog entries using a tool called Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, Dean also uses it to offer press releases and news articles.

Dean's site is indeed the gold standard. And perhaps that is why I'm disappointed it isn't easier to use.

The site is really a mishmash of sites — the blog, a "Dean TV" video archive, campaign paraphernalia and so on, each seemingly a separate fiefdom.

It's easy to jump from the home page to another area, but you generally need to return to the home page before you can explore something else.

And did I mention there's not one or two, but three calendars?

The Project Commons tool is impressive. It lists unofficial events. But for the candidate's schedule, I had to visit "Pressroom." On Thursday morning, all it offered were the names of cities or states Dean had visited the previous three days. Listings for most of the other candidates were more detailed and current, with addresses and sometimes contact information.