Mobile visits to whitehouse.gov up nearly double

On the same day that President Obama and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg participated in a town hall public meeting discussing a wide range of national and technological issues, the White House updated its popular iOS app and launched a new Android app in the Android Market. Both versions offer roughly equivalent feature sets, and new features include a push messaging option, an updated photo gallery and social-network sharing capabilities for blog posts and videos, the latter of which -- like today's town hall -- can also be watched live in the apps.

Users can get alerts when a White House event is starting, or watch featured videos later. News and blog posts from the White House are continually updated, and the photo gallery maintains a pictorial record of events as they are released by the White House press office. Both versions of the app are of course free of charge.

The addition of an Android app is a response in part to requests from mobile users, and also a response to the increasing popularity of the app. Over 400,000 people have downloaded the iOS version of the app, and the White House says that traffic from mobile visitors has nearly doubled to 6.6 percent of all visits to WhiteHouse.gov in the last two months, compared to 3.6 percent of visits in the same period a year ago.

Videos, pictures and events from the White House do not just include news events or policy speeches, but can include music, cultural or visiting dignitary events, Medal of Honor ceremonies, state dinners and town hall meetings like the one held today.

By Electronista Staff