As you may know, the New Hampshire primary for the US 2008 Presidential election is today. Although web 2.0 itself has not been positioned as a major campaign issue, the power of the web and social networks has played a large role in not only individual candidate campaigns, but in the debate process itself. Additionally, with his victory in the Iowa caucus, Democratic candidate Barack Obama has become the first candidate leading in Internet metrics to pull off a major victory. So this begs the question, are Obama's fans the most savvy and "connected" supporters? Well, in addition to having the most friends on MySpace and supporters on Facebook, Sen. Obama is also leading in the war of campaign widgets. According to Widgetbox, a major distributed widget marketplace, Obama has nearly double the number of widget impressions as his nearest opponent. In fact, he has almost as many impressions as his two nearest competitors combined! These widgets are embedded on personal web pages, blogs and social networking sites. This certainly gives additional (if ancillary) credence to the idea that Obama is the most plugged-in candidate.
Widget Impressions from Widgetbox Widgets
What effect, if any will the candidates online popularity have on the polls? Keep checking the news, and DownloadSquad, to find out!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-08-2008 @ 10:24AM
tcgiant said...
what *effect*
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1-08-2008 @ 10:31AM
erroneous editor said...
This post is only half the truth. Objectively speaking (purely using polling statistics) the most popular candidates among tech savvy voters is in this order:
#1 Ron Paul
#2 Kucinich
#3 Obama
While i personally am a-political and don't particularly support any candidate, i find it interesting that you neglected the #1 & #2 spots.
Remember - i lie by omission is still a lie.
Reply
1-08-2008 @ 10:49AM
Kelly said...
Well it just makes sense. Obama is the youth candidate (under 35) because he's able to pander to that age group most effectively. Tech savvy folks tend to be...under 35.
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1-08-2008 @ 11:07AM
Daniel Aluma said...
This gives further credence to his message of change. He has embraced the web 2.0 change more than any of the others; you can extrapolate this to other areas of the human experience.
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1-08-2008 @ 11:21AM
brooks.williams said...
Ummm... Ron Paul?
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1-08-2008 @ 1:36PM
Brian said...
Odd. Most people I know working in IT are Ron Paul supporters.
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1-08-2008 @ 2:48PM
dave said...
As usual, Ron Paul is left out, I guess he's just meaningless, and that $20 million he raised just came out of thin air.
Don't start reporting half reports downloadsquad. That is not the whole story and you know it, You are better than the damn mainstream media.
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1-08-2008 @ 3:34PM
Grant Robertson said...
We didn't have any data on Ron Paul. If we did, we'd have gladly posted it. Certainly, Ron Paul has his own massive internet savvy success story, WidgetBox or no WidgetBox.
Unfortunately, this post isn't about general internet promotion, it's about the use of WidgetBox widgets. You're probably right that Ron Paul was worth a mention, but it would have only been as an aside (since we lacked data on Ron Paul's WidgetBox success, failure or otherwise) and thus, really wouldn't have counted for much.
If you really want to complain to someone about lack of Ron Paul resect, I'd start with Fox News.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/01/ronpaulreigns.html
Thanks for reading us (and for telling us we're better than the mainstream media).. we got all fuzzy inside when you said that. *blush*
1-08-2008 @ 4:13PM
RP said...
Perhaps the Ron Paul supporters don't use WidgetBox. Maybe they're too busy posting to Digg day and night.
Perhaps they're even more tech savy than Obama supporters, such that they don't need dumbed-down widgets? Who knows.
1-08-2008 @ 4:04PM
David said...
Were is Ron Paul in this, we all know he is all over the Internet. So why is he not even listed.
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1-08-2008 @ 5:07PM
Grant Robertson said...
Read comment above?
1-08-2008 @ 8:21PM
Rumble said...
It's true, Obama has a commanding lead among Democrats. On Facebook, 60% of Democrats support Obama. On the other hand, Paul has the lead among Republicans with around 35%. This survey or whatever it is doesn't count in my book, but whatever. It pleases the mainstream.
Ron Paul 2008! Be informed!
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1-09-2008 @ 12:59PM
JerryChance said...
I don't care who the next President is as long as George Bush is dispensed with !
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1-15-2008 @ 2:43AM
angrykeyboarder said...
I don't get why so many on teh Internets are so gaga for Ron Paul. I've not been impressed myself.
I'm 47 and quite tech savvy and I'm for Barack Obama.
Please God, let us get a Democrat back in the White House!
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1-17-2008 @ 10:34PM
phoenix said...
Honestly Ronulans, when are you all going to get it through your heads:
No. One. Cares. About. Ron. Paul.
He's going to lose the primary, he's going to lose your inevitable, sad, write-in campaign, and he won't be president. Sorry, but the lot of you need beating with the reality stick.
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