Paid-Search, Domain Name Growth, Spurt in 4 Year Cycles?

I read this piece reflecting on competitive keyword bidding:

http://www.straightupsearch.com/archives/2007/04/google_to_deter_1.html

Summary:  Democrats bid on their own keywords ..  Republicans bid on each others keywords. Interesting enough I guess...

Quote: "The Democrats aren't bidding on each others names. Do they not feel threatened by competition within their own party? Is it too early in the process for such tactics? Perhaps they aren't aware that they can. Is the Republican strategy of bidding on the other candidates meant to blanket the SERPs with only Republican candidate names and ensure a Republican victory? And why is neither party bidding on the other party's candidates in an attempt to win voters over to their side?"

A while back it occurred to me: This next election campaign could be the inflexion point which changes paid search and domain names forever. 

Just like wars (as tragic as they are) bring massive technical peace-time innovation, election campaigns are fertile soil for paid-search and user generated content. People start blogging, sharing, keyword-bidding, domaining. We saw the very beginnings of competitive keyword bidding in the last presidential race, now every mayoral contest is doing it.. 

Look at all that's happened since the last presidential campaign: Blogging went crazy (even I'm blogging), paid search grew beyond expectations, IP issues came to the forefront, domain prices went up, more people came online for information..  I think the last great war (political race), was a catalyst of sorts, driving the masses to embrace technologies they may not have embraced as quickly.. Think that was wild?  Wait till the last half of 2008! ..  and there are still three years of bombastic growth in the broader paid-search market predicted beyond that!  This "really" is an exciting time to be a participant in this space.

Comments

[cdc]

I'm also interested to see how much spam (web and email) the upcoming elections are going to generate. With the abundance of tools that are now available, I can only imagine how many people will be using them to push the candidates they support down our throats.

Get ready for an influx of 'Obama would completely agree with this post' comments on your blog...

[Christopher Ambler]

I ran the web site for a local Democratic candidate for congress in 2004 (astounding, too, since I'm a Libertarian, myself - but the guy really is smart).

I've been asked twice already to help candidates with web sites and turned both down because I don't like the candidates. As soon as one comes along that I can back with a clear conscience, just you wait until you see what I do with their online presence!

Just saying. :-)