Of all U.S. presidential candidates, Senator Barack Obama’s campaign web site, BarackObama.com, received the most unique visitors for the month of July, according to a report released by Nielsen//NetRatings.

BarackObama, Senator from Illinois, Democrat, had 717,000 unique visitors to his campaign web site, outperforming Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Edwards by nearly 300,000 visitors.

Among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton’s web site, HillaryClinton.com, came in a distant second with 437,000 unique visitors in July, followed by John Edwards site, JohnEdwards.com, with 348,000 unique visitors.

Among the Republicans, Fred Thompson’s site, ImWithFred.com, drew the most unique visitors, 381,000; despite having not yet announced running as a presidential candidate, though his candidacy was expected.

Fred Thompson is best known for work as a Tennessee senator his role on the NBC television series Law & Order, where he played New York City District Attorney Arthur Branch.

Thompson announce his candidacy Wednesday on The Tonight Show, saying, “I’m running for president of the United States.” Viewers of the show were asked to visit Fred08.com, where a 15 minute video resided announcing his candidacy.

Rudy Giuliani’s web site, JoinRudy2008.com, came in second with 124,000 unique visitors, followed by Ron Paul, RonPaul2008.com, and John McCain, JohnMcCain.com, with 113,000 and 104,000 visitors, respectively.

These figures show Democrats to have a much stronger following on the Internet. This may be due to the sheer number of Democrats using the Internet, but Carolyn Creekmore, senior director of media analytics at Nielsen//NetRatings believes that it is primarily due to Democratic candidates taking advantage of the Internet.

“Consensus has been that Republicans have been slower to take advantage of the Web in their presidential campaigns, but Fred Thompson may be taking a cue from his Democratic counterparts,” said Carolyn Creekmore, senior director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. “Rather than shying away from buzz, the Thompson campaign is actively engaging in an online conversation. Thompson’s online announcement is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s.”

As Obama’s site leads in visitor traffic, Hillary Clinton’s website held its visitors for the longest period of time, with each visitor averaging eight minutes and seventeen seconds on the site.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 3:01 pm under Internet.  Print

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