In Targeting Online Ads, Campaigns Ask: Who's Searching for What?

The Web research firm Hitwise, which samples data from 10 million U.S. Internet users, has ranked, for each candidate, the top 25 search phrases that include the candidate's last name.

For example, ranking among the top 25 search terms that include the word "palin" are "bristol palin," "sarah palin pictures," "sarah palin photos," "sarah palin hot photos" "sarah palin hot" "sarah palin affair" "snl video of palin clinton" "sarah palin swimsuit" "sarah palin pics" "palin affair" "sarah palin scandal" "sarah palin bikini" and "sarah palin beauty pageant."

Among the top 25 search phrases that include "mccain" are "how old is cindy mccain," "cindy mccain age" and a handful about the candidate's first wife and their children.

Among those for Obama are "obama jokes" "obama antichrist" "obama muslim" and "obama birth certificate."

"You have to go pretty far down these lists to find issues," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise and author of "Click," a book about what people search for online.

The superficiality of the inquiries regarding Palin is striking, Tancer said, and reflects the newness of her celebrity.

"Sarah Palin is the new Paris Hilton," he said.

The McCain campaign has purchased thousands of keyword phrases. The Obama campaign appears to have bought fewer, but the search terms it is known to have purchased reach at least into the hundreds.

According to AdGooroo and SpyFu, among the thousands of terms purchased to send people to McCain Web sites are:

· "Hot wife," which linked to a biography of Cindy McCain.