If US presidential elections were today, Barack Obama would be President . . .

… at least on the Web, and Al Gore would be Vice President. I ran a coolhunting query yesterday Nov 19, 2006 on the Web, checking out the standings of the presidential contenders. The rankings are as follows (see the picture):
1. Barack Obama
2. Al Gore
3. Newt Gingrich
4. John Edwards
5. Rudy Giuliani
6. Mitt Romney
7. John Kerry
8. Hillary Clinton



Coolhunting on the Web can give a skewed picture of the real world, as it basically measures how much somebody is mentioned on the most important Web sites. In this case the most central Web sites (see the picture) were dailykos and ovaloffice2008. Other Web sites linking back to the most important Web sites “vote” for their importance in boosting the standing of Barack Obama and his competitors. In particular, coolhunting does not really care if you get positive or negative mentions, just being talked about on high-profile Web sites helps. This is not so different from real-world marketing, however, where it is said that there is no good or bad advertisement, as long as one is spoken about. What this means, for example, is that Hillary Clinton is not doing a very good job of raising her profile on the Web – we will see what it will do for her two years from now.

How coolhunting works is explained at www.swarmcreativity.net.

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