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Internet link love proves more powerful than old-school politics in the 2008 election, thanks in part to a visionary social networking election strategy. In today’s link building column, “Obama’s Link Strategy Fuels Election Victory,” Sage Lewis looks at what we can learn about online marketing from studying presidential politics.

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I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that election day is next Tuesday. Whether you’re observing or you’re breaking out the campaign gear for some hardcore get out the vote effors this weekend, here are some tools to help you keep up with the news and your efforts:

Google Earth

You can download a KML file that lets you search results from past elections, since 1980. The data is broken down and can show you how different regions of the country voted - even by county. I used to work as a political consultant, and let me tell you - this kind of data is heavily relied on. It’s a bit of a late release for campaigns, who already have this data. But it’s great for political junkies.

Google News

Trying to remember what a candidate said on an issue? Just type their name into Google News. If Google has indexed a quote by that person, it will appear on top of the search results in the one box.

Google Mobile

Want to know your precinct location? The Google Mobile team has created a special tool just for that purpose. Go to m.google.com/elections on your mobile phone, type in your address and you’ll be directed to your precinct.

The tool did not point me to early voting locations, which in my state are not the same as Election Day precinct locations.

As cool as that is, always verify with your local elections office. Google even helps you do that. They have a box where you enter your state’s abbreviation, and it will pull up relevant links to voting information.

Yahoo Elections Hub and Political Dashboard

Yahoo makes the most of its successful portal platforms with its Elections Hub and Political Dashboard. The dashboard is a super slick map showing the latest poll results. Hopefully they update it with real time results on election night. I can totally see myself keeping the dashboard open while watching results come in on the tv.

Microsoft Live Search xRank

xRank, Live Search’s buzz tool, has a politician section. It’s no surprise that the Rep and Dem presidential and vice presidential candidates take the top 4 spots today. The rest of the top 20 is filled with senate and gubernatorial races, with Hillary Clinton and George Bush thrown in for good measure.

MSN Election Live Q&A

Q&A is Live Search’s answer product, and over at the MSN Election Guide, you can find the Election Live Q&A. It’s pretty straightforward. You can ask and answer questions about the election in real time.

AOL Elections Toolbar

AOL has a toolbar for IE and Firefox that can keep you up to date with election news. If you like to surf the net while watching TV - this could be an ideal toolbar for you come Tuesday night.

Well, hopefully that’s enough to keep you busy and up to date.

Got any tools to share? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Related Reading:
Obama is Winning the Internet War
ChaCha Selected by Rock the Vote for Mobile Answers

Google CEO Eric Schmidt hit the campaign trail this week with presidential candidate Barack Obama. Is there any merit to Google’s statement that Mr. Schmidt’s personal beliefs are his own and Google isn’t backing Obama, just its CEO? In today’s Searching for Meaning column, “Vote Obama/Google in ‘08?,” Kevin Ryan asks if Schmidt crossed the line of appropriate behavior and good sense.

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ChaCha has been selected by Rock the Vote to provide SMS search for the duration of the 2008 elections. Rock the Vote is the effort by MTV to make voting cool among youth.

Users can text questions RTVOTE (788683) on their cell phones and receive nonpartisan answers from “politically-trained ChaCha Guides.” Texters can learn where their polling place is, candidate issues, and whether or not it’s possible to remain nonpartisan in this election anymore.

“As the presidential election continues to heat up, we’ve seen a sizable increase in questions about the election,” said ChaCha Co-Founder and President, Brad Bostic. “ChaCha has rapidly become a popular, trusted resource for young people who want information while on the go. By making credible answers easy to access on virtually any mobile phone, ChaCha and Rock the Vote are providing unprecedented access to the information voters need to make informed choices.”

Related Reading:
ChaCha is Fastest Growing Mobile Text Search Service
ChaCha Launches Enterprise Mobile Answers Service

The keynote speakers for Search Engine Strategies Chicago have just been posted to the website for the SEM conference. And check out the heavy hitters:
• Lawrence Lessig, the Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, is giving the opening keynote on Monday, Dec. 8;
• Bill Tancer, the General Manager of Global Research at Hitwise, is giving the morning keynote on Tuesday, Dec. 9; and
• Josh James, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Omniture, is giving the morning keynote on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

That’s quite a line up. Or, as my good friend Anne Kennedy, the Managing Partner of Beyond Ink and a member of the SES Advisory Board, says, whether you’re a “seasoned search maven or hopeful newbie, you’ll find speakers who share expertise, new research, horizon’s edge views and knuckles-in-the code tactics” at SES Chicago.

Take Professor Lessig, for example. For much of his career, he has focused on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. He is the author of Code v2 (2007), Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001) and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999). He was also a columnist for Wired, Red Herring, and the Industry Standard.

According to a recent article by Kim Heart in The Washington Post, Professor Lessig is among the signers of a letter that went to the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns. The letter was also signed by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

The letter asked the candidates to insist on using a new method to choose debate questions. While that job is usually left to the media host, the members of the “Open Debate Coalition” say they aren’t “hard-hitting enough.”

Instead, they want to let people submit questions, then vote on their favorites, over the Internet. The top 25 questions would have the potential of getting asked during the debates.

“This cycle’s YouTube debates were a milestone for Internet participation in presidential debates,” the letter said. “But they put too much discretion in the hands of gatekeepers. Many of the questions chosen by TV producers were considered gimmicky… and never would have bubbled up on their own.”

So, do you think what Professor Lessig says at SES Chicago will be on the mid-term? All I know is that I can’t wait for the Q&A following his keynote.

The following day, Bill Tancer takes the stage. He’s the author of “Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters.”

Bill, who I’ve known for years, is the author of a weekly online column for TIME, “The Science of Search.” He is a frequent guest on CNBC, and has been quoted extensively in the press, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and Business Week.

Bill recently had a “naked lunch” with Andy Greenberg of Forbes.com. Hey, I didn’t make this up. Click on “We Are What We Google” and read the article for yourself.

In the article, Bill is quoted as saying, “What I find really fascinating is how much we tell search engines – more than we tell surveys, more than our family members, more even than our priests or rabbis.”

Are you skeptical of this claim? Bill backs it up with his analysis of searches beginning with “fear of.” It reveals search engine users are afraid of flying, heights, clowns, intimacy and death, in that order.

Looking at searches beginning with “how to,” he observes that the phrase “how to tie a tie” edges out “how to have sex” and “how to kiss” for the top spot.

And Bill’s analysis of searches beginning with “why” shows that most queries are related to school projects. But these fall sharply during the summer and Christmas holidays. During those periods, more existential questions like “Why did she leave me?” and “Why did God do this to me?” pop to the surface.

But wait! There’s more! The following day, Josh James is the keynoter.

James co-founded Omniture in 1996 and, under his leadership, it has evolved into one of the fastest-growing publicly traded software companies with more than 4,700 customers across 75 countries and over 1,100 employees. His market vision, leadership and entrepreneurial philosophy have enabled Omniture to achieve greater than 75% growth for more than five consecutive years, as well as to maintain customer retention rates of greater than 95%.

James is also the founder of Silicon Slopes – a private sector initiative whose mission is to promote the interests of high-tech in Utah. A recent article by Tom Harvey in The Salt Lake Tribune said that the Omniture CEO was motivated to found Silicon Slopes in 2007 to change the misperception that Utah is “A quirky state at the edge of the desert dominated by a single religion and defined by its far-right politics and weird liquor laws.”

For example, Siliconslopes.com is sending out thousands of promotional posters this year that depict the Silicon Slopes running along the Wasatch Mountains from Logan to Provo, listing an array of high-tech companies with operations here, as well as ski resorts and signs pointing to Moab and other attractions.

While I haven’t met Josh James yet, I did interview Huw Roberts of Omniture earlier this year at SES London. Roberts talked about the importance of web analytics to effective search engine marketing for businesses of any size.

Huw Roberts, Omniture, at SES London 2008

There you have it: The keynote speakers for Search Engine Strategies Chicago.

And I’ve got to agree with Anne. Whether you’re a “seasoned search maven or hopeful newbie, you’ll find speakers who share expertise, new research, horizon’s edge views and knuckles-in-the code tactics” at SES Chicago.

Recently, SEW Expert Erik Qualman examined Google Insights for search trends related to newly announced Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Like Barack Obama, being unknown sends people a-searching on the internet.

Google Trends and Insights gets a lot of attention when it comes to measuring searches, and so does measurement firm comScore.

But the number 2 and 3 search engines also provide insight into hot searches. So, let’s take a look at Microsoft’s xRank and Yahoo’s Buzz Index to see what’s hot in their user searches this week too.

Microsoft’s xRank sorts hot searches by categories. The current categories are Celebrities, Musicians, Politicians, Blogger and Olympics.

Here’s a screenshot of the Politicians page for this week:

The Yahoo Buzz Index has categories, but not one for politics. Here’s a general look at the top searches:

What do you think of xRank and Buzz Index? Let us know in the comments.

The recently announced Google Insights tool provides unprecedented data on Google’s user searches and trends. In today’s building brand equity column, “(Google) Insights on VP Candidate Sarah Palin,” Erik Qualman offers three quick tips on how to leverage Google Insights, whether you’re running a Presidential race or a brand marketing campaign.

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Recently, Microsoft started putting images as the background design of Live.com. For two glorious weeks, the images were of Olympic events. Now, they’ve switched to politics.

Today’s image is a closeup of Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama at his big acceptance speech last night. But with less than half of those polled supporting Barack Obama, could such an image deter people from using Live.com?

We can say the same thing if/when a McCain picture appears on the site.

It’s not that political events shouldn’t be on Live.com’s site. But perhaps a wider shot of the event would help visitors see the image as a news photo. Plus, with the hot spots that Live.com is using to help visitors explore searches - today’s photo it has 2 boxes on the blurry audience background and one on Obama’s collar. Kind of awkward.

How do you think Microsoft should handle political photos in its new design? Sound off in the comments.

With the Democratic National Convention starting today in Denver, I thought it would be prudent to see which search engine is handling the highly anticipated event the best. Of course, Microsoft rocked the Olympics and outpaces everyone in mapping Georgia, but who’s got political game?

Microsoft proved again that it’s on top of current events, but it’s AOL that takes the cake in my book. First, AOL makes use of its design as a portal to serve up content on the homepage, which eliminates searching for today’s biggest US story.

Then, AOL makes use of its news and content networks to provide relevant links in its search results. Something that caught my eye is a link to News Video. I would have thought YouTube would dominate online video for the conventions, especially considering their involvement in the debates. But YouTube left a lot to be desired, while AOL News Video served up relevant, organized video.

AOL Homepage

AOL convention search results

AOL News Video results

YouTube results

Ask.com didn’t have to do anything different. Their usual results, which includes a right sidebar with images, provided a nice offering of convention-related content.

Ask.com search results

Microsoft’s Live.com could have made use of their new design, making the image of the day related to the convention. But they still have an Olympics-themed image up. Still, a search provides the latest convention news results at the top, and I like how their links to image, video, and other types of search are below the search box instead of on top. That helps users find what they’re looking for even better. Searching for video via Live.com brings up results from AOL, YouTube and other sources such as the AP. The videos are organized like image results, which makes for quick browsing - probably quicker than AOL or YouTube. However, some of the videos are from past conventions.

Live.com search results

Live.com video search results

As I was writing this, Yahoo changed its results. Before, it showed News Results about halfway down the page, now news results for the convention are at the top. This puts it on par with Microsoft. Yahoo does take slight advantage of being a portal to provide content right on the front page so no searching is involved. But today’s headline is the new Dancing With the Stars cast and whether Kim Kardashian’s foot injury will prevent her from participating.

Yahoo convention search results

Google offered nothing special. They both provided News Results, but placed them about halfway down the page.

Google results

Yahoo front page

But don’t take my word for it. Do some searching of your own and then leave a comment giving your vote for best search engine for Presidential politics.

According to an exclusive story in the National Journal Online, John McCain has outspent Barack Obama for two consecutive months in search engine advertising.

Written by Lucas Grindley, the story, entitled, “McCain buys his way to top of Google,” cites Nielsen Online data that shows McCain bought 7 million “sponsored search link impressions” in June and 5.4 million in May, compared with 1.15 million for Obama in June and 1.8 million during the previous month.

Since search engine advertising is sold on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis instead of cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), it’s unclear if McCain’s dramatic lead in impressions generated equally dramatic number of clicks.

It’s worth noting that one of the top five sites where McCain bought image-based banner impressions was … the National Review. However, the other five included Topix and The Washington Post, so it’s not clear that you can read anything between the lines here.

By comparison, the top five sites where Obama bought image-based banner impressions included Yahoo, CNN and MSN. Plus, Obama bought 80 million banner impressions in June, compared with McCain’s 16 million.

So, what’s all this mean to search engine marketers?

For his story, Grindley interviewed Peter Greenberger, who manages the “small but growing” elections and issue advocacy team at Google. Greenberger speculated that the Presidential campaigns were in a “persuasion phase,” where candidates might be more interested in banner advertising.

“You are not looking for that active voter who maybe knows who he or she is voting for,” said Greenberger. “You are looking for that more passive voter who is reading information but not quite ready to commit.”

Hmmm. I wonder if Greenberger has seen the new study conducted by Enquiro Research with Google in Europe that found the ability of unclicked search ads to build brand. If he hasn’t, he can click on “Digging Still Deeper Into The Search Branding Question” and read the blog post by Gord Hotchkiss, the CEO of Enquiro.

Of course, Gord would be the first one to tell you that the debate over the search branding question is far from over.

But, if I were working in the McCain or Obama campaigns, I would run, not walk, to get my hands on the latest research. Gord is a Canadian, so he doesn’t have a horse in this race. And, if this upcoming election is as close as the latest polls indicates that it is, then neither presidential campaign can afford to leave even a small amount of search branding value on the table.

As for the search engine marketers who read this blog, I would also encourage you to run, not walk, to get your hands on this latest research. As Gord says, “search can be the most important brand tool in a marketer’s arsenal, if it’s used in the right place. It’s a matter of understanding what search can do and what it can’t. And, even more importantly, understanding how to measure that value.”