The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently conducted a poll that should make candidates and campaign people sit up and take notice: a staggering 46% of Americans got information about the 2008 campaign via the internet. This is worth quoting at length, so bear with me.

Furthermore, three online activities have become especially prominent as the presidential primary campaigns have progressed: First, 35% of Americans say they have watched online political videos--a figure that nearly triples the reading the Pew Internet Project got in the 2004 race.

Second, 10% say they have used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to gather information or become involved. This is particularly popular with younger voters: Two-thirds of internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of these use social networking sites to get or share information about politics or the campaigns.

Third, 6% of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2% who did that during the entire 2004 campaign.

A significant number of voters are also using the internet to gain access to campaign events and primary documents. Some 39% of online Americans have used the internet to access "unfiltered" campaign materials, which includes video of candidate debates, speeches and announcements, as well as position papers and speech transcripts.

In May 2008, 135 million Americans used the search engine Google to search for information on the internet. And here's where Daily Gotham rules the roost in New York: if you're a candidate for office, odds are, our pages are one of the first results for your race.

For example, Ed Towns: the first result after his Congressional page and his Wikipedia entry is, you guessed, a piece on Daily Gotham.

Jon Powers (NY-26): Campaign site, Wikipedia entry, ActBlue, Daily Kos, Daily Gotham, in that order.

Eric Massa (NY-29): Campaign site, Wikipedia, ActBlue, Daily Gotham.

Brian Foley (SD-3): government site, unrelated site, Daily Gotham.

So is it worth engaging blogs, specifically, this blog? If you care about what your voters will see if they type your name into the world's biggest search engine, I'd suggest the answer is yes.