One of the founders of Facebook has become one of the key players in Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and no, it's not Mark Zuckerberg. Chris Hughes, the former roommate of Zuckerberg at Harvard, left "Stalker-book" for Obama's new-media campaign in Chicago last year. By taking advantage of his crafty skills with social networking sites, Hughes brought Obama's popularity to a new level by reaching more than 80 million active users on Facebook alone. Perhaps that explains the growing number of Obama's international following with about 31 Obama groups on Facebook and counting.

Yet Facebook is not the only tool used by Democrats; it merely serves as a supplement to, and possibly a basis for My.BarackObama.com--also a creation of Hughes. The homepage resembles Facebook with a side menu listing 'Friends', 'Events', 'Messages', 'Groups', and other 'applications'. The Web site is organized well in a simple layout that is easy to navigate around. Plus, the feature 'Obama Everywhere' lets you find the presidential candidate on every social networking Web site possible, such as MySpace, YouTube, Digg, and even culturally-based ones like MiGente and AsianAve.

Truth to be told, Obama's Internet presence has generated a younger fan base who are more technologically-savvy than their elders. Although his Republican counterpart, Senator John McCain, has his own Web site as well, I have a feeling johnmccain.com is not getting as comparable of a reception as his competition. The GOP may want to try a little less harder with a name like 'McCainSpace'.