For some it may be a little thing, for others it may be a stunt (for example, there’s already a debate going on about the robots.txt file) but it’s another symbol of change being brought in at all levels and another example of how the web is being recognised as an integral part of communicating with the public.

For now, it’s fantastic PR – it not only shows a new approach to chatting with the public, it shows fresh thinking – and with the good design it shows that it’s thinking about the user.

There is a downside to this though: you can just bet in the UK that most politicians will miss the point of what makes the site work and we’ll see a raft of poorly-thought out imitators.

Otherwise people are just going to feel that Twitter was used because it was seen as a way of getting in touch with an audience (d’uh) and that could lead to some thinking Obama’s just like the rest of the politicians and just uses people/issues/platforms as needed and then dumps them after – and if he can do it with Twitter, what about other issues?

If the plan was to just use Twitter in the build-up, then the last post should have been to direct people to sites like Change.gov.

Only time will tell though. It may just be a temporary blip. Let’s be honest, the staff deserve a few days off…