Obama vs. McCain: The Wired Scorecard, Wired.

What do Barack Obama and John McCain say, and what have they done, about policies that matter to Wired? Here are descriptions and analysis on five issues:

1. Broadband
2. H1B issues
3. Investment in green tech
4. Net neutrality
5. Spectrum

Complete guide to Google Analytics, TechRadar.

Analytics has also expanded to encompass a larger tool set and conversion process. It includes offline data sources and multivariate testing solutions. Perhaps the largest shift is that virtually everyone is now aware of and able to afford a quality web analytics and multivariate testing platform.

The benefits of blogging, The Hill.

Discussions and debates about public policy issues are taking place all the time within the blogosphere — with or without your organization’s involvement. While the concept of blogging continues to be met with skepticism and reluctance at the C-Suite level, the D.C.-based offices of corporations and associations should nonetheless consider creating a blog as part of their overall communications and lobbying strategies.

Google Launches "In Quotes" Project To Compare US Presidential Candidates, Search Engine Land.

Google has launched a new labs project named In Quotes. In Quotes allows you to compare quotes between the two US Presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama.

Google Search Finds Seafaring Solution, Times Online.

The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore.

The “water-based data centres” would use wave energy to power and cool their computers, reducing Google’s costs. Their offshore status would also mean the company would no longer have to pay property taxes on its data centres, which are sited across the world, including in Britain.

As Twitter Regains Footing, Competitor's Growth Stalls, Louis Gray.

Twitter has the potential to be the conduit for the SMS and text messaging generation to social media. Twitter has already proven to be a great option for news updates, alerts to emergencies, and for using keywords to gauge the temperature of tens of thousands at once.

Young Republican Road Trip, BusinessWeek.

Kerry Donnelly is a 21-year-old New Yorker, and she's thrilled about voting in her first Presidential election…for John McCain. The college senior identifies more with the policies of the 72-year-old senator than with the change promised by his younger Democratic counterpart. And, despite all the excitement generated by the young followers of Obama Nation, she's not alone.

Google At Age 10, NYTimes.com.

Google applied for incorporation as a business 10 years ago Thursday, according to a timeline supplied by the company. The application was accepted on Sept. 7, which is Sunday.

20 Things You Need to Know About Google Chrome, TechRadar.

Google took the unusual step of announcing its new browser via an online comic. We've had a read through and pulled out the things you need to know about Google's new browser.

Ads for Twits on Twitter (TwittAd Launches), TechCrunch.

Do you have 53 followers on Twitter? Shouldn’t you be making money off of them somehow, selling their attention to the highest bidder? Well, now you can with TwitAd. You list how many followers you have and for how much you are willing to sell an ad on your Twitter page, and TwitAd will match you with advertisers. 

Googling in Person to Make Friends, New York Times.

During the last year, Google has built a 40-person group that is charged with courting agencies, trying to persuade them that their clients should buy ads on Google sites and use the search engine’s tools. The Google team — like any ad team — is visiting agencies to show off the company’s products, like video ads on YouTube and display ads from DoubleClick. Its representatives are even making regular visits to ad agencies, soliciting suggestions and fielding questions.

McCain Seems to Have Obama Beat in One Area, Wall Street Journal.

Sen. John McCain is in some ways outsmarting Sen. Obama when it comes to Internet marketing. One example: As of Wednesday, a Google search for "Joe Biden" or even just "Biden" resulted in a prominently displayed ad labeled "Joe Biden on Obama" that links to Sen. McCain's site.

Sen. McCain was able to pull of that sleight of hand because he outbid his opponenet for the search term "Joe Biden." As a result, Sen. McCain's ad takes the top spot alongside search results, while Mr. Obama's ad appears lower in the results.

About Culture11, Culture 11.

Our goal is to build a community around irresistibly interesting perspectives on life in America. From pop culture to politics, from faith to family, you'll find original and entertaining stories here from some of the country's most dynamic voices.

We hope you'll take a few moments to explore the site. But more importantly, we hope you'll make Culture11 your own. 

Last night, the Google election team led by Peter Greenberger and Rena Shapiro hosted members of the DC politics + tech community in their swank DC-office space (Previous Coverage of Google DC: Garret Graff, TechRepublican).

Key players from both sides of the aisle were present including:

* From The Right

Cyrus Krohn and Liz Mair of the RNC, Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation, former Giuliani eGuru Katie Harbath, former Romney eGuru Mindy Finn, Eric Frenchman of Connell Donatelli, Meghann Parlett of the Leadership Institute, Damien LaManna of Pajamas Media, David Almacy of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, Peter Pasi and Matthew Dybwad of Emotive, and Stan Olshefski of the NRSC.

* From The Left

Michael Bassik (of course!) of MSHC Partners, Adam Green of MoveOn.org, Clay Johnson formerly of Blue State Digital, Dan Manatt of PoliticsTV, Julie Germany of IPDI, Ben Self and Josh McConaha (sp?) from the DNC, and Mike Liddell from the DSCC.

And probably a few others that I've missed. (David.All AT techrepublican.com with updates.)

* And End With Some Dessert

At the conclusion of the evening, TechRepublican managing editor Joe Mansour caught Cyrus Krohn nabbing a few Google straws for his "kids." Natch.

Good time. Hope to see you at the next Google par-tay.

Today, one of the Republican Party's fastest rising stars, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, joined New Orleans Democratic Mayor Ray Nagin to announce that they are working with YouTube and Google to "bring American voices into a forum with Presidential nominees."

Along with the New Orleans Consortium, Jindal and Nagin plan to host the forum on September 18, 2008 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

Appropriately, here's the YouTube announcement:

Let's hope all of the candidates decide to participate.

Two things worth thinking on:

1. For the past two Presidential events, CNN was the official media sponsor with YouTube. So far, no media carrier has been listed. We shouldn't assume that this means that CNN is out of the running for the gig, but given how CNN handled the Republican debate last fall (see the Save the Debate Coalition statement), I'd be surprised to see them get it.

2. As Dan Manatt blogged last December, the Commission on Presidential Forums has already made it clear that to increase participation, the "Internet" will play a major role in the second commissioned debate - which is a "town hall style" debate:

The second departure from past CPD formats will be the introduction of internet access to the presidential town meeting debate. Questions solicited by Internet will be included with those from citizens on the stage with the candidates.

The second CPD debate is scheduled for Tuesday, October 7 at Belmont University, Nashville, TN. Will YouTube and Google be there? Time will tell.

One thing is clear, I'm heading to both New Orleans and Nashville.

Google has a new feature that allows users to create custom timestamps for outgoing emails. Miss your grandma's birthday? No problem, gmail is on your side.

While this is probably an April Fool's joke, it's an ingenious idea that could come in handy every once in awhile. Apparently, you can only change your timestamp up to 10 times per year (based on the probability that the recipient will actually believe it).

All in all, a good discussion on the future of the Internet and its ability to completely change our perceptions of everything we once thought to be certain (like time) and the way users interact with eachother and will go on to interact with eachother in the future.

However, this tool, in the wrong hands, would raise important ethical questions if used in politics and government.

According to my co-worker, Jane, if Google were to do this it would, "completely destroy society."

For instance, the stock market. In the future could there be such a thing as rain checks on purchasing shares?

Food for thought.