Desperately searching for Sarah

Carrie Dann NBC Reporter

WASHINGTON - Despite the best efforts of the Fourth Estate, the truth is human beings tend to be remarkably uninformed about their own environment.

But thankfully, we are also curious.

Which is one very good reason for inventing the search engine.

In the political message ecosystem, chief campaign communicators repeatedly pledge to "cut through the clutter" with their latest pitch to voters. Often, their audience has already beat them to it, seeking the truths (or untruths) that Yahoo and Google can reveal.

An analysis of search term data compiled for NBC News by the online research company Hitwise shows that people in the digital universe are desperately curious about this year's presidential and vice presidential contenders. What they're looking for says a lot about how the campaigns are — and are not — making their messages stick.

To take one example: Democrats spent the week after the GOP convention desperately trying to debunk Sarah Palin's claim that she said "thanks, but no thanks" to Alaska's famed Bridge to Nowhere. Curious truth-seekers used the web to learn more.

About one in every five hundred web searches containing the phrase "Sarah Palin" during that week inquired about the Alaska governor's support for the pork project, making "Sarah Palin Bridge to Nowhere" the 72nd most frequent search term on her list. But ranking far above the earmark investigation in popularity (among the 10 million internet users in Hitwise's sample) were "Sarah Palin legs" (No. 16), "Sarah Palin Vogue" (No. 18), and "Sarah Palin sexy photos" (No. 49).

In other words, while political operatives frenetically worried about how the public viewed the authenticity of Palin's claims, the online public was frenetically viewing — without particular worry about authenticity — doctored photos of a bikini-clad, gun-toting Alaska governor. (see "Sarah Palin bikini," No. 14.)

Fact versus Fiction
Yet web users' sometimes perverse pursuits provide an unfair picture of the legitimate issues and even bold questions sometimes asked of search engines' sophisticated logarithms.

Slideshow   Sarah Palin: Republican star for 2012? View images of her rise from governor of Alaska to a potential presidential contender. more photos

During the week of September 13, for example, as America's economic underpinnings were starting to become un-pinned, the term "Obama view on economy" clocked in as one of the "fastest moving" (aka increasingly popular) searches driving traffic to Obama's website.

Last week, "John McCain Spain" debuted at number 10 on the list of "John McCain" search terms after the senator offered an unexpected answer to a Spanish-language radio host who asked if he would agree to meet with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero. (McCain's unusually cool response led some to wonder if the candidate confused Zapatero with the leader of another country.)

The vast majority of searches for each candidate's name appear to be exploratory in nature, with general terms like "John McCain issues" or "Joe Biden info" acting as portals for information for users starting from scratch to learn more about the White House nominees.

McCain and Obama on the issues AP Click here to see where the two candidates stand on key issues.

Biographical information is also in high demand, particularly for Barack Obama, whose mother, father, sister, and wife are also all popular subjects for searches. Almost 20% of the top 100 search terms for Obama in the past month were ones seeking information on his age, family, and upbringing.

But interestingly, Obama is the only one of the four nominees for whom "affair" is not a popular search.

Hitwise data for the same time period showed that web users wondered feverishly about the extramarital exploits of Palin (rank No. 7 on her search term list), McCain (No. 29), and to a lesser extent Biden (No. 294). Web users also appear to be fascinated with McCain's first wife, whom he divorced after an overlapping courtship of the much younger Cindy McCain.

MORE FROM

Section Front

Obama campaign head gets big book deal Officials turn down Franken request Joe the Plumber to become war correspondent Franken lead at 49 with absentees left to count Minn. Senate winner won't be known in 2008 First Read: 'Twas the seventh week of recount... Franken opens first lead in Minn. Senate race Mom of Palin daughter's boyfriend arrested Minn. court weighs rejected absentee ballots Minnesota panel reviews disputed ballots Section Front   Add headlines to your news reader: