As more and more candidates declare their intention to run for president in 2008, more and more Americans will turn to search engines like Google and Yahoo! to find their websites.

So, at a minimum, I expected all 17 of the presumed candidates to have purchased keywords. To my chagrin, only six candidates have taken the plunge. And if you take a closer look, it’s the Republicans who are doing a significantly better job of using search to communicate with the electorate...

Clinton gets a B+; Kucinich gets an F. A ranking of the candidates' websites' by how quickly they tell us where we can find public meetings offline.

The Web on the Candidates

Danny Glover at AirCongress posted a 45-minute video (it's hosted on YouTube; since Google owns it, they made an exception for the 10-minute video length rule) of Hillary Clinton speaking to with Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Google headquarters last week. According to the Mercury News, Clinton first discussed policy issues with Google execs before speaking before a crowd of 200 Google employees. Although Bill Clinton enjoyed high popularity in Silicon Valley, Hillary still needs to work for their support. "She can draw on what Bill Clinton meant to the valley; it's definitely an asset. But I don't think it's immediately or fully transferable," says Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone. [via AirCongress]

Chris Cilliza of the Washington Post takes a look at the battle for netroots support among Democrats and sees that, unlike 2004 when the nascent movement supported Howard Dean, "the support of the netroots is less unified this time around." His three measures of support? The fundraising numbers on Act Blue (John Edwards leads the pack with over $900,000 raised), the DailyKos monthly poll (Edwards is first place with 26; Obama trails at 25 percent), and... techPresident, who provides the MySpace stats (Obama's on top).

The Web on the Candidates

Heather Greenfield of Technology Daily writes about the use of Google Adwords and Google-bombing in political campaigns. Despite search-engine operators' objections, bloggers from the left and right -- people like Chris Bowers of MyDD and John Hawkins of Right Wing News -- have used Google bombing to influence Google's search results.

TechPresident blogger David All has a poll up on his site asking readers, "Which website/service will have the most impact during the 2008 Presidential campaign?" So far, 18 out of 21 voters have chosen YouTube. Giuliani advisor Patrick Ruffini rightly suggests, however, that we don't yet know what the killer app in 2008 will be: "...the killer app of 2008 hasn’t been invented yet. It will be invented in a garage in August of this year, start gaining critical mass by the end of the fourth quarter, and be on the tip of everyone’s tongue by the middle of next year."

Just a day after I posted about John Edwards texting campaign, a friend told me that Edwards was now using Twitter, a social networking tool that enables users to let friends and strangers know what they're doing.

I'm here at the Politics Online conference in Washington, D.C., and I'm listening to Eliot Schrage, Google VP of Global Communications, talk about Google's approach to politics ("we want to make all of the world's information available to everyone. That's political -- knowledge is power") and it's plans for the 2008 election. After running through what YouTube/Google contributes to the political process -- using videos of Hillary Clinton singing out of tune, John Edwards playing with his hair, and a few jokey videos about children running for president -- he said that Google will be setting up a special team to help campaigns use Google products during the 2008 campaign.

The Web on the Candidates -- Politics Online Edition

Jeff Jarvis posts a roundup of one of the first sessions at the Politics Online conference, on putting together a web team. The panel, moderated by former Hotline editor Chuck Todd, featured Giuliani advisor Patrick Ruffini, former Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi, myDD's Jerome Armstrong, and Townhall's Chuck DeFeo. Trippi, as usual, was full of useful anecdotes from his Dean days. Jarvis reports one: "[Trippi] recalls a moment in Iowa — a story I’ve heard before — when a student told Dean that he was skipping a final to see the candidate but the candidate switched to dad mode and insisted that the kid go take his test. It made great and authentic video, Trippi says, and he marks it as a significant moment in the campaign online." No current has reached that level authenticity, Trippi says. Check out a video of the panel on Ruffini's site.

Twitter became very popular the past couple of weeks, as all of the A-List bloggers, and folks attending SXSW in Austin started signing up and inviting all of their friends. Because of this, Twitter has proven itself as a great means by which candidates can make connections with potential voters.

The Web on the Candidates

President Bush is now quoting bloggers, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the Caucus reports.  "I want to share with you how two Iraqi bloggers — they have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we’ve got here," Bush said.  He quoted a passage that described improving conditions in Baghdad: "Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed. We hope the governments in Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve."  However, the posts were written weeks ago, and were reprinted in the Wall Street Journal on March 7.  Although the Bush Administration initially stonewalled on the bloggers' identity, it was eventually disclosed that the bloggers are two dentist brothers, Omar and Mohammed Fadhil, who live in Baghdad, and who visited the White House in December 2004.

Four female advisers to Hillary Clinton hosted a web chat yesterday and according to the New York Times' Patrick Healy, the message was "All Women Should Stand With Hillary Because Hillary Will Make Life Better For All Women."  The chat topics ranged from having time for the family ("...every time that I feel pangs of guilt that I am not at home with my children, I think about how important it will be to my daughter when Hillary is president. And what a role model Hillary will be to her.") to Hillary's user of power, to the war in Iraq, to health care. 

So Barack Obama is keeping track with Hillary Clinton in the money chase, with "over $25 million raised," compared to $26 million by her. Or, is he actually ahead, with $23.5 milliion raised for the primary, compared to some unknown subtotal for her? We won't know til mid-April, when the campaigns file formally with the FEC. The question is, what matters more: big money or small money fundraising? And does "online fundraising" mean anything special any more?