Hitwise has launched a new data center that will track a range of metrics associated with the upcoming 2008 US election. It will reportedly update those metrics every Tuesday. The categories that will be tracked include the top websites from both parties, top political search terms and the fastest moving political websites, among several others.

Beyond general interest and curiosity there’s also a potential predictive value to this data, indicating through a show of collective intent who might be most likely to win primaries or the general election. However, one must also be cautious about drawing too many conclusions from the data by the same token.

Right now, here’s the ranking of the “top presidential candidates 2008 websites,” according to Hitwise:

1. www.barackobama.com

2. www.hillaryclinton.com
3. www.ronpaul2008.com
4. www.johnedwards.com
5. www.mittromney.com
6. www.joinrudy2008.com
7. www.johnmccain.com
8. www.mikehuckabee.com
9. www.joebiden.com
10. www.chrisdodd.com
11. www.gravel2008.us
12. www.richardsonforpresident.com
13. www.dennis4president.com
14. www.gohunter08.com
15. www.brownback.com
16. www.tommy2008.com

Barak Obama has a 26.7 percent market share vs. Hillary Clinton’s 15.9 percent share in the general field of political websites, while among democratic candidate websites only, he leads Clinton 40.6 percent to 24.2 percent. Yet the polls show something quite different, with Clinton leading Obama 43 percent to 22 percent according to an August 1 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Related Topics: Search & Society: General | Search Engines: Government Search Engines | Stats: Hitwise

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling