Study Of 2008 Presidential Contenders In Search Engines
Andy Beal has done a study of the 2008 U.S. presidential election in search engines, seeing how 18 announced candidates appear to searchers on Yahoo and Google. Andy examined the top 20 results for each name and tabulated the number of positive, negative, and neutral websites listed in the search engines.
Of all candidates, Ron Paul had the highest percentage of positive pages, no doubt due to a rabid internet fanbase that has been skewing internet polls for months. Of all mainstream candidates (those receiving 10% of the vote in any recent major poll), only Hillary Clinton has over 50% positive results. The most positive, in order, are:
Clinton - 52.5%
Romney - 47.5%
Obama - 47.5%
Giuliani - 42.5%
Edwards - 32.5%
McCain - 27.5%
The most negative, in order, are:
McCain - 10%
Edwards - 10%
Clinton - 10%
Guiliani - 7.5%
Romney - 2.5%
Obama - 0%
Clinton’s strong internet presence has significantly helped her campaign rank well in the search engines, while McCain and Edwards have their work cut out for them. While no candidate has a significant number of negative results, a lack of positive results indicates poor online outreach that will hurt that candidate in the long and short term.
Curiously, Andy left out Fred Thompson, who figures high in Republican polls. I’ve taken the liberty of tabulating the top 20 for “Fred Thompson”
On Google:
1: Neutral
2: Positive
3: Neutral (IMDB)
4: Neutral
5: Neutral
6: Neutral
7: Positive
8: Positive
9: Neutral
10: Positive
11: Positive
12: Positive
13: Positive
14: Positive
15: Positive
16: Neutral
17: Neutral
18: Positive
19: Neutral
20: Positive
So, that’s 55% positive, 45% neutral, and 0% negative, at least on Google. Those are the best numbers of any candidate of any party.
Check out Andy’s public Google Spreadsheet for the full chart.
We left Thompson out due to the fact he’s not officially declared. We did however include him in our research, we found one negative result.
Comment by Andy Beal | June 28, 2007
Actually, Thompson has started an exploratory committee, the same and only official action Hillary Clinton has taken. Also, he has a speech scheduled for July 4 where he is expected to formally announce his candidacy.
Still, the most important thing is that, other than Al Gore (and only then in some polls that strangely include him), Thompson is the only candidate running 10% or more of the vote that you did not include, as opposed to several candidates you included with 1% of the vote in the polls.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | June 29, 2007