Back in August, when most Americans were either on vacation or dreaming about it, nearly 20% of US adult Internet users — some 26 million people — went online for news or information about politics in a single day, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That is impressive, considering that the November 2006 elections are only for select congressional districts in midterm contests. During the last national election in November 2004, Pew says 18% of the US online adult population, or 21 million people, visited political information sites.

The candidates — and their consultants — have taken notice. For the 2008 national election, 92% of the 155 political consultants polled by E-Voter Institute, HCD Research and the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion expect to spend between 1% and 50% of their campaign budgets online. By the 2016 national elections, 18% of the respondents expect to spend more than half their campaign advertising budgets online.

Rich media ads on Websites that belonged to parties other than the candidate (newspapers, TV networks, etc.) were most effective at garnering new e-mail addresses (83% of respondents said so), getting people to take surveys (75%) and motivating the candidate's base and raising money (70% each).

But it is the "linked-as-friends" and user-generated ads now appearing on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Friendster that are the most interesting, or embarrassing, to watch. Since September, Friendster has sponsored a contest for users to post their own political ads and will award cash prizes to the winners after November 6. Facebook created 1,400 candidate profiles that list names, states, parties and offices, according to USA Today. Of those, about 300 are updated by candidates or their staff. And in mid-October, AOL introduced its own political blog, called The Stump.

For a look at the social networking possibilities for political candidates, check out eMarketer's Social Network Marketing: Carving Out Some MySpace report.