The hope that the capping of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill had finally been successful was only a few days old when the Obama administration switched from ad hoc crisis response to a different kind of communication: DeepWaterHorizonResponse.com, set up hurriedly after the explosion and the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon platform, is being replaced by the new website RestoreTheGulf.gov. 

The name of the new website makes clear that the emphasis now moves - away from crisis response - to the restoration of the Gulf area. Another point - the extension ".gov" - is equally important. The Top Level Domain (TLD) .gov is available for official government websites only: The US government leaves no doubt who has the information lead in the crisis and who will be giving the official information from now on. 

DeepwaterHorizonResponse.com had offered a mix of government information and information from BP; a fact that had been criticised. Meanwhile, BP tries to play an active role in informing the public, too: The global website BP.com focuses on the crisis and offers many direct contact channels.