There's a very interesting story in the Washington Post about how the presidential campaigns are buying ads that display on various Google searches.  It's well worth your time.  Unfortunately, I don't think it goes far enough in teasing out the implications of this.  So I thought I'd lay out some thoughts on the matter.

There's more...

The gist of the story is that for the first time, the presidential campaigns are investing heavily in Google Adwords.  So if you search for, e.g., "Obama muslim", the paid results include the Obama camp's Fight the Smears effort. 

What's important about this is that the searches you're performing reveal precisely what you're interested in.  "McCain old" is very different from "McCain tax cut".  That's a potentially rich source of information, but it would be a real challenge to move out of the virtual realm and tie this information to a specific voter.

Right now, this kind of information could not be given directly to campaigns or other outside groups, under Google's privacy policy.  However, I think it might be possible to get around this.  Google is already willing to serve up ads to people who search on given terms; you could try to get them to send email to all Gmail accounts that search for those terms as well.  So if I search for "Obama muslim", at some point in the future I get mail from Google.  If said mail includes a link to a special splash page or something of that sort, we know that the person with that email address is searching for that term; and once we have an email address, if that address is in our files, it's off to the races.

For example, searching on unambiguously negative terms--"Obama muslim", "McCain old", "Palin unqualified"--could indicate a supporter potentially slipping away.  That might make this voter a higher priority for phone banks and doorknocking, or trigger a piece of lit. 

The other big question, besides getting access to the data, would be the impact of specific search terms.  Figuring out what search terms "mean" in terms of what the searcher is thinking would be a fascinating challenge--you'd need a finger on the zeitgeist, some solid research skills, and a ton of dedication. 

As long as this data is out there, someone will be trying to get access to it--this way lies the future of politics.  I'm not quite as sanguine as Dirty D about this; it behooves everyone out there to be aware of what footprints they leave, and our government to make sure that this new availability is for the most part not harmful.