Widgets and the U.S. Presidential Election

Home » Industry News and Insights

Widgets and the U.S. Presidential Election

4 September 2008 2,611 views 33 Comments

There’s been a lot of attention on the use of social media and widgets in the election and Widgetbox has been gaining recognition as a resource for contrasting the candidates’ widget strategies. We’ve even seen widgets used as a way to measure a candidate’s momentum on the web…and to infer who’s leading in the polls.

We first got curious about the possibilities last May, when we blogged about how we noticed a surge in the popularity of Obama widgets as his campaign was closing in on the Democratic nomination, while activity on Hilary Clinton widgets started to decline. Read the post here.

Interest in Widgetbox as a resource for data on widget activity and trends continues to grow, and last week on Profy, Svetlana Gladkova mentioned Widgetbox as the best source for widget-related info in a story on how Obama is using the power of social media: “When I need information on this or that widget I usually go to Widgetbox to get a sense of how active people are in installing certain widgets on their blog or profiles so I have decided to take a look if I can find some campaign-related widgets.”

So, what does our data say about the latest activity in the political widget scene? We took a look at all the Obama and McCain widgets on Widgetbox over the weeks leading up to both party conventions. Obama widgets continue to outnumber McCain widgets, by a ratio of almost 3:1. Further, Obama widgets were active on 5.5 times more domains and received 6.5 times more impressions per day than McCain widgets.

We then looked at the geographic reach of the Obama and McCain widgets and found that 27% of all the traffic to the Obama widgets came from 150 non-U.S. countries while the McCain widgets received 11% of their total traffic from just 95 non-U.S. countries. Most surprising however, is that the Obama widgets received more traffic from OUTSIDE the U.S. than the McCain widgets received from WITHIN the U.S.

We also took a look at the popularity of Obama and McCain widgets by U.S. city and found that while Obama widgets outperformed McCain widgets in nearly every city, they led by the greatest margin in Obama’s home city Chicago with 7.8 times more traffic, and had one of the narrowest margins in McCain’s home city Phoenix with only 2.1 times more traffic. Pretty interesting…

Popularity: 1% [?]

Widgetbox on Facebook

33 Comments »

April said:

Interesting, but does it really just say that widget users are more likely Obama supports?

# 8 September 2008 at 9:57 am

Hugh Chatfield said:

But is Sarah Palin actually the long lost sister of Michael Palin of Monty Python? I think we need her to sing the Monty Python Lumberjack Song. Do you know it? “I'm a governor and I'm okay, I sleep all night and I work all day. I cut down trees, we build that bridge that goes where I belong. Obama is muslim, I hope you like my song.”

# 14 September 2008 at 2:27 pm

spor haberleri said:

thanks..

# 7 October 2008 at 9:27 am

Parallel Import Cars said:

I think now John Campaign's manager and the Republicans should have a good look at these statistics.

# 14 December 2008 at 12:07 am

Bookmarks about Blog said:

[...] – bookmarked by 1 members originally found by Narutoxyz on 2008-11-20 Widgets and the US Presidential Election http://blog.widgetbox.com/2008/09/widgets-and-the-us-presidential-election/ – bookmarked by 6 [...]

# 27 December 2008 at 3:30 pm

Managerial Job said:

They were definitely fired and would no longer be part of the Republican's campaign.

# 29 December 2008 at 10:50 am

Singapore Escorts said:

Internet has revolutionize election campaign. It can make or break a potential candidate.

# 7 January 2009 at 10:21 pm

Italian Restaurant said:

Wow interesting data out there. This is an informative piece of article. Thanks for sharing !

# 9 January 2009 at 8:31 am

Singapore Hotel said:

That would be a scary phenomenon but a wake up call for politicians.

# 9 January 2009 at 10:40 am

Singapore Property said:

It appears that the social media give a somewhat accurate picture of the voters' choice. Such is the power of the internet in any political campaign.

# 19 January 2009 at 2:35 am

mapls said:

Thanks for sharing. Really interesting:)

# 29 January 2009 at 3:02 pm

sell my house fast said:

So Obama's supporters are more technologically savvy. For the 2012 election he is easily going to rake in more funds thanks to his existing mailing list. That's wicked smart.

# 1 February 2009 at 12:28 pm

Shop Fitting said:

Widgets starts to play a great importance on all future elections.

# 3 February 2009 at 11:47 am

Jeanine R Brown said:

Excellent, entertaining, useful reading, Thanks !!

# 3 February 2009 at 11:40 pm

Amiga said:

I also see a big traffic boost after putting some widgets on my site:)

# 8 February 2009 at 11:58 am

Seo Singapore said:

You're right about the Republicans being fired. Many of them has been laid off after the Presidential loss.

# 15 February 2009 at 9:19 am

Brian Ashton said:

nice article dude

# 16 February 2009 at 12:40 am

Duple Ang said:

Nice one! I support Obama as well!

# 18 February 2009 at 8:20 pm

replicaloh said:

Everyone is so mad over the president election!Glad that Obama has won.

# 18 February 2009 at 8:58 pm

Jasmine Lim said:

Almost everyone are technologically savvy.Not only Obama supporters!

# 18 February 2009 at 9:25 pm

ezditto said:

It's unbelievable that there are widgets made for obama.

# 19 February 2009 at 7:01 pm

Knee Pain said:

I think widgets play a part in the elections but social media as a whole should also get the credit.

# 21 February 2009 at 8:16 am

Ryan Low said:

This goes to show how Obama impact the lives of most people. Widgets customized just for him is just right for people to follow up news on him and knows more about how the nation is progressing.

# 23 February 2009 at 8:09 pm

jonaw said:

It does seems like Obama are already the winner without them to announce it!He seriously have lots of supports as shown from the chart above!He is more like a celebrity than a president.

# 23 February 2009 at 9:08 pm

Annie said:

Yes its pretty interesting that even McCain's home city Phoenix doesn't really drive more traffic in support of her. It seems that her capabilities are far of Obama. I wonder what did he do that attracts so many supporters!

# 23 February 2009 at 10:37 pm