WASHINGTON - The U.S.Election continues heating up in the virtual sphere, as Democratic candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain bring their fight to Google search.

According to Hitwise,a web research firm, both candidates have bought ads and "Sponsored Links" to appear beside popular Google search terms related to the election.

Keywords and sponsored search-links paid for by the democratic campaign include "Obama's views", "Obama volunteer", "Obama and tax". The Democratic campaign has also tried to debunk rumours by associating sponsored links leading to clarifications to terms such as "Obama as a Muslim".

However, McCain appears to be leading in this Internet tussle as Nielson Online revealed that McCain's sponsored search-links have had 21.6 million hits, while Obama related links has only had 1 million.

This story first appeared in my paper in Chinese on Sep 22, 2008.

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