McCain Seems To Have Obama Beat in One Arena

Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) appears to many people to be running a far more tech-wise campaign than his opponent, with his use of text messages to announce his vice-presidential candidate and the creation of his own vibrant social network, My.BarackObama.com. But Sen John McCain (R-AZ) is in some ways outsmarting Sen. Obama when it comes to Internet marketing. One example: As of Wednesday, a Google search for "Joe Biden" or even just "Biden" resulted in a prominently displayed ad labeled "Joe Biden on Obama" that links to Sen. McCain's site. There, a video begins playing that shows Sen. Biden criticizing Sen. Obama during the Democratic primaries. The move mimics the "ambush" strategy that advertisers often employ: buying a competitor's term so that an ad for the buyer's own product appears when a consumer searches for the other brand. Sen McCain was able to pull off that sleight of hand because he outbid his opponent for the search term "Joe Biden." As a result, Sen McCain's ad takes the top spot alongside search results, while Sen Obama's ad appears lower in the results.