By By Sean Leviashvili, News Staff

It was a question that entered Brian Krantz’s mind more than once throughout the 2008 campaign:’ Was Obama really the face of change?
As a self-declared Republican, Krantz, who graduated from Northeastern in December, was looking to explore the age old question of whether the press could cover a candidate, and now, a president, fairly.
‘Before Obama became president, everyone was making this big ‘hoorah’ about him,’ Krantz said.
‘I wanted to see what he was doing as president and see if he was going to be the man that everyone wanted him to be.’
Jan. 21, the day after inauguration, Krantz said he approached his friend, former classmate and founder of CoopRatings.com Vipul Lakhi with an idea. That idea became’ TrailObama.com, a website that now gives readers daily insight into Obama’s schedule and agenda.
Krantz and Lakhi, who have developed websites since they were 16 and 18 years old, respectively, began collaborating on the site immediately. Their common goal was to create a resource for news readers to turn to that was objective and easy to navigate.
To do so, Krantz and Lakhi, along with their two other partners ‘- Bryan Bloom, head of content, and Jesse Chemtob, head of marketing ‘- include articles they describe as ‘action’ articles.
‘We include articles that describe what he is doing,’ Lakhi said. ‘No commentary, no stories about Michelle or his kids, but articles about him signing a bill, meeting a diplomat or holding a conference.’
The articles are compiled from publications like CNN.com, TheHuffingtonPost.com, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
The website has a tab for Obama’s daily schedule, and the top section includes breaking news. Underneath that lies a timeline, which features past articles about Obama. In addition, the website has sections dedicated to the economy, foreign affairs, the weekly YouTube address, health care, homeland security, energy and environment.
Jeffrey Pena, a senior architecture major, said he visits the site to view the weekly address and to read about energy and the economy.
‘I’m about to enter the job market, so the economic issues are really important to me,’ Pena said. ‘The website is easy to follow and visually interesting.’
The daily process of maintaining the site begins with Bloom, a self-declared democrat who scans through hundreds of articles about Obama, which can take a few hours each day, he said.
‘I update it in the morning, at night and throughout the day,’ said Bloom, a Long Island native who graduated from Indiana University last year.
For example, he said, Obama’s surprise visit to the troops last week called for an immediate update.
‘We want to provide our viewers with the best possible service,’ he said.
The service will continue to develop, Lakhi said. Within the next few months, they plan on launching new features, including an ‘Obameter,’ which would allow viewers to rate Obama’s leadership, the ability for users to create their own profiles, and an option to allow users to ask Obama a question, Bloom and Lakhi said.