ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 11, 1996 TAG: 9603110057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ANNANDALE
SOURCE: Associated Press
Two Northern Virginia men have created a World Wide Web site for the White House that looks like the real thing, performs like the real thing and has nearly the same Internet address as the real thing.
But the spoof on the Oval Office features, among other items, a plug for a book by Gennifer Flowers, the Arkansas woman who has made a career out of her alleged affair with President Clinton.
While the parody by Annandale residents William Herrin and Christopher Mincer appears to be in good fun, computer experts say it shows how easily a Web page can be made to look official and could be used for more than parody.
``You've got to be careful that you've got the right address when you try to visit a Web page,'' said George Pateman of InterNIC Registration Services, a Herndon-based company that officially registers Web sites to the Internet community worldwide. ``If you mis-hit a couple keys, you could wind up somewhere completely unintended and not know it,'' he said.
The legitimate White House site contains government statistics, biographies and presidential speeches.
The bogus site contains a Beavis and Butt-head icon as ``The President and Vice President'' and an icon displaying the McDonald's logo with the introduction: ``What's Cookin': The President dines at the Washington area's premiere culinary establishment.''
The authentic Web site's address is http://www.whitehouse.gov; the parody's is http://www.whitehouse.net.
White House spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said the White House has no plans to ask the men to change the address of their site, ``but we're going to see if there's anything that can be done to make sure our page isn't confused with theirs.''
Mincer and Herrin, 22-year-olds who run a small business that designs Web sites, came up with the idea for the faux Web site about a month ago, as the two were exploring Internet addresses. They bought the rights to the address for $100.
Mincer said he and Herrin didn't mean any harm in their spoof.
``We did it anonymously,'' he said. ``It was just for a few friends. We didn't think the White House would even find out about it.''
But after receiving praise from friends and computer experts, they're considering adding more to their site, Mincer said.
``We haven't even touched Whitewater yet,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB