They've Got A Crush On...Ron Paul?

Technorati is always full of quiet, unexpected surprises, thanks to its list of most popular search terms. Often, these are predictible: Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, iPhone. But just as often, they are unpredictible: Steorn, Hummer Winblad, Cathy Siepp. And, today: Ron Paul. Ron Paul? Google News gave little indication of why he'd be so popular, apart from not having been invited to an Iowa presidential candidates forum (see 9 news articles here!). Nor did it seem to be because of this profile in yesterday's Sacramento Bee. Nor did it seem likely that it was Paul's support of tax protesters Ed & Elaine Brown that did the trick. And yet, there at #3, four spots ahead of Paris Hilton, was — and still is — Ron Paul.

So, what does this mean? Who knows — Technorati has a different sort of crowd, a more rarefied and tech-savvy online audience, which is why these search terms are often so interesting (even if they are not always immediately revealing). What it does say is that there is a level of interest out there that the polls aren't necessarily catching (though he came second in this Utah straw poll) and that the media is definitely missing. And, just as the NYT's "Most Emailed" list is usually vastly different from the "Most Blogged" list (and the "Most Searched" list, which always seems to include the word "gay"), it suggests that different metrics pick up different trends — but also miss out on some, too.

So, here's another one: ETP did a little old-fashioned, wholly unscientific data collection and came up with the list of the most-blogged candidates, including Fred Thompson, whose declaration at this point would really be almost a formality, and Mike Bloomberg, who is probably making a few candidates on both sides of the aisle sweat a little right now, earnest protestations notwithstanding. Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama lead the bloggy charge, and John Edwards, while certainly not leading in fundraising, can take some solace in the fact that the blogosphere likes him better than Mitt Romney. The biggest surprise? Mike Gravel, not in last place! He's no Ron Paul, but we can't help loving the just-about-to-snap quality he brings to the proceedings. At any rate, below find a list of the 2008 presidential candidates, ranked in accordance with their Technorati mentions:

146,637 blog posts about Hillary Clinton
142,243 blog posts about Barack Obama
99,635 blog posts about John McCain
93,919 blog posts about John Edwards
70,497 blog posts about Mitt Romney
61,878 blog posts about Rudy Giuliani
55,609 blog posts about Ron Paul
39,966 blog posts about Fred Thompson
27,799 blog posts about Bill Richardson
22,258 blog posts about Joe Biden
22,232 blog posts about Dennis Kucinich
21,963 blog posts about Michael Bloomberg*
19,053 blog posts about Sam Brownback
15,210 blog posts about Mike Huckabee
14,671 blog posts about Tom Tancredo
12,971 blog posts about Duncan Hunter
12,569 blog posts about Chris Dodd
9,784 blog posts about Tommy Thompson
9,627 blog posts about Mike Gravel
5,148 blog posts about Jim Gilmore

Update: Wow, great minds think alike/fools seldom Google effectively: I have just discovered that the Washington Post ran an almost identical article last week. Turns out Ron Paul's huge on the Internet. Technorati search term, explained. Thanks for solving the mystery, WaPo! And, everyone on Facebook and MySpace!

Related:
Ron Paul Is Huge On The Internet [WaPo]
Ron Paul Is Blowing Up Real Good [Salon]

The results for Bloomberg were more unscientific than the rest, because he is known by three different names: 'Michael,' 'Mike' and 'Mayor,' so we added those searches together to get the 21,963 figure. This is Technorati, people, it's so not scientific. But, interesting.