You know those text ads on the right hand side of Google search result pages?  I wonder who is trying to cash in the 2008 US Presidential race.  Back in February Michael Bassik over at techPresident did an investigation into which 2008 Presidential candidates had purchased text-ads.  I've decided to take a brief look at any site buying ads for searches for candidate names.

Let's see who is trying to cash in on the Democrats.  Click here for the Republicans.

Read below for the ads that I found, but here's a few general trends I found:

• YouTube is a dominant advertiser.  This is probably because candidates aren't only partnering with the site, but Google owns YouTube which probably makes for great cross promotion.
• The front runners tend to have more ads than the candidates that are lesser known.
• Barack Obama's official site is the only one I saw advertised when people searched for his name.  I personally find this kind of surprising since someone typing in a candidate's name is very likely interested in them.
• Conservative sites only had ads for Obama searches.  I find this strange; it wouldn't surprise me if partisan sites start buying for people on the other end of the political spectrum as they try to convince undecided searches that the candidate is not good.
• Environmental site ads ruled Al Gore's search page.  No breaking news there.

For simplicity's sake, I am using the Washington Post's candidate list and only focusing on the ads that show up when I search for the candidate with the spelling from WaPo.  The ads are listed in they appear.

Democrats 

Joe Biden

• Joe Biden Videos from YouTube
  • Links to Biden's profile page — just like other YouTube text ads.  Also note that Biden uses YouTube on his site headtohead08.com.
• Joe Biden for President from DemocratStuff.com
  • Anyone want a Joe Biden bumper sticker or tote bag?
• Your Vote Counts from DeclareYourself.com
  • A non-profit and non-partisan site that is trying to get youth to vote in the 2004 election.  Aren't we passed that already?
• President Joe Biden from BeatBushGear.com
  • Redirected to CafePress — the place where every cause can peddle its own swag.  I think we'll see this site a lot.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

• Hillary Clinton Wristband from band-together.com
  • Remember those yellow Live Strong wrist bands?
• Hillary 2008 Stickers from pressforprogress.com
  • Get your Hillary stickers here.
• Hillary Clinton '08 Gear from Zazzle.com
  • How cute… a CafePress clone!

Chris Dodd

• Chris Dodd from Comedy Central
  • This links to a video of Dodd's interview on The Daily Show.  It must have been a heck of an interview if the hip comedy channel is touting it…

John Edwards

• Edwards on YouTube from YouTube
  • I feel pretty.  Oh, so pretty!
• John Edwards from Moviefone.com
  • Hmm… I think that there is another John Edwards.
• John Edward Tickets from Tickets-For-Events.com
  • This makes sense.
• Learn About Sen. Edwards' from GenerationEngage.org
  • This is a youth organization trying to connect young people with politicians from both parties.

Al Gore

• CRE8 Conference, Fight for Your Climate, Stop Global Warming, and Invest in a Greener World are from environmental sites
  • Al's the posterboy of environmentalism now.
• Fight Global Warming from GenerationEngage.org
  • This site wants to connect youth with Gore to discuss the environment.
• Al Gore for President from BeatBushGear.com
  • Finally, an ad – which redirects to CafePress – that wants him to run for president.

Mike Gravel

• Mike Gravel 2008 Gear from Zazzle.com
  • The CafePress clone is back.  Why can't politicians hold a monopoly on their campaign swag?
• Mike Gravel for President from DemocratStuff.com
  • This site proudly peddles only 100% union and American made wares.

Dennis Kucinich

• Kucinich on YouTube from YouTube
  • Who wouldn't want to see the same speech over and over?
• Dennis Kucinich in '08 from DemocratStuff.com and Dennis Kucinich '08 Gear from Zazzle.com
  • Don't tell these sites that people can easily get campaign paraphernalia for free at events…

Barack Obama

• Obama Barack from YouTube
• YouTube is really trying to bank in on the race and the sometimes candid candidate videos it has.  The fact that its owned by Google makes it easy for it to advertise here.
• Meet Barack Obama Live from BarackObama.com
• Wow!  This is the first official campaign site I've seen so far.  Very wise move, especially as it links to a page asking for contact information.
• "Barack Obama Exposed" from HumanEvents.org
• A conservative site takes on Obama. This is another interesting advertising move. 
• Barack Obama in 2008 from buttonsonline.com
• Get a button that says "[Your state] for Obama'08."  2500 are only $599.95.  What a deal!

Bill Richardson

• Bill Richardson Videos from YouTube
• Richardson only has one ad.  At least someone loves him.

Granted, the ads display are constantly in flux based upon keyword popularity, a site's relevance to the keyword, time of day, etc., but this analysis gives us an idea of who is trying to bank in on the candidates. If a candidate isn't listed, there were no ads under their name.

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