Candidates' Web use reflects philosophy

WASHINGTON, June 16 (UPI) -- The differences between the two presumptive U.S. presidential nominees on using the Internet could be age-related philosophy, Web strategists say.

"There is a gap between people who are digital natives and people who are digital immigrants. Obama clearly has an advantage over McCain in that he is a more comfortable user of these tools," Micah Sifry, founder of TechPresident.com, told the Politico.com.

TechPresident, a blog covering 2008 presidential candidates' use of the Web, notes Web "campaigns are a reflection of the candidate," Sifry said.

Phil Noble, founder of the non-partisan PoliticsOnline.com political news site, said the approaches Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., use reflect their philosophies about new technology.

"Obama has given people the tools to create and run their own campaigns," Noble said. "McCain is still a command-and-control, top-down candidate. Part of it is the difference in age."

Members of both parties agree that while candidates' Web sites have been more transactional until recently, Obama succeeded in relationship-building.

Obama's online network of supporters is huge: As of last week, my.barackobama.com social networking site had 926,000 members, and his Facebook site listed 946,568 supporters.

McCain, had 141,183 Facebook supporters, the Politico article said.