On the Web, Supporters of McCain Wage An Uphill Battle: Republican's Online Presence Lags Far Behind Obama's, Washington Post.

No doubt. Less than five months before Election Day, with polls showing the presumptive Democratic nominee holding a slight edge over his Republican counterpart, there's one place where Obama unequivocally trumps McCain: the Web. And what's most telling about the online drubbing is its spontaneous, grass-roots nature -- the way Obama's Internet portrait is drawn and refreshed every day by enthusiastic supporters, whose blogging, YouTubing and networking aren't controlled or limited by any campaign.

That's best seen on the Big Three social networking sites -- soc-nets, in onlinespeak -- where the junior Illinois senator beats the senior Arizona senator right into the ground. On MySpace, Obama lists more than 401,000 friends to McCain's nearly 56,000. A similar sevenfold gap exists on Facebook, where Obama supporters number 1,040,185 while McCain's clock in at 152,570.

And on YouTube, it's like Obama and McCain operate in two separate layers of the atmosphere. McCain's channel, which has posted 208 videos, has been viewed 3.7 million times; Obama's more than 1,100 videos on his channel have been viewed 53.4 million times.

John McCain Is Way Behind Online: The GOP candidate trails Barack Obama in Web fund-raising and vote-getting. Now McCain's campaign is scrambling to catch up, BusinessWeek.

The Republican Party is taking other steps to further its online agenda. On June 24, All's consultancy, the David All Group, helped launch Whereisthered.com along with the College Republican National Committee. The communal blog follows three college Republicans as they travel cross-country through "Red" congressional districts. The aim is to show young voters the widespread appeal of the party across America. Last year, All introduced a donor site, Slatecard, in part as an answer to the Democratic ActBlue, a four-year-old online political action committee that lets users contribute to any Democratic candidate and that has raised $53 million. Slatecard won't release membership numbers or say how much it has raised but All says the goal for this year is $1 million.

The Web Is Where It's At for Youth Vote, AdAge.

A new survey, released today by PR agency Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, shows that a strong majority (64%) of 18- to 35-year-olds are relying on digital communications to stay informed on this year's election because it provides the easiest way to access and share information. And in another blow for traditional media, the survey also finds that an overwhelming majority (76%) prefer online sources rather than traditional news sources because respondents feel the latter attempts to control and shape the news. The one bit of good news for traditional media: 38% of those responding to the survey have more confidence in its content; only 30% had more confidence in internet content.

McCain's 'Dr. No' Web Video Meets With A Collective Shrug, Wired.

"What strikes me about the Dr. No video is that it actually makes Barack Obama look really cool," says Thierry Daher, CEO of Vanksen, Culture Buzz New York, an online marketing company. "They picture him with James Bond music in the background, and you have someone who’s tall, thin, and good-looking -- he’s probably closer to James Bond than Dr No."

In other words, the images and sounds just don't support the underlying goal and message of the advertisement, Daher says.

But he says that he finds the McCain campaign's previous web video "Words," more effective.

But, he adds: "I’m not sure that there’s anything really viral about it. It’s just a negative ad. There's no 'wow effect.'"