An article on newsvine really made me stop in my tracks. It described the interview of political hopefuls for the White House throne which Google schedules for its staff. This one was with John McCain. Hillary had gone first in February. The first, and probably obvious point is that out of very busy schedules, presidential hopefuls have to weigh up what interviews and appearances will be the most useful in their campaign. An interview by Google top brass in front of computer geeks now counts as a not to miss opportunity.

The article speculates that the Google interview could become the 21st-century equivalent of the candidate’s pilgrimage to the General Motors plant which past candidates faithfully completed. With other words, labour no longer calls the shots during election time. The internet, and its supposed representatives in the form of Google and its staffers, now is the entity to woe.

For the Googlers, the issue was more about ensuring the Presidential Candidates realise that IT and the Internet are very important in terms of the high-tech economy as well as keeping America competitive. It also provides Google top honchos Eric Schmidt et al with the opportunity to point out issues that are important to them and Google. Of which “net neutrality” would be at the forefront. This would mean that web sites should have equal access to any internet user, education, and immigration reform that would allow more skilled workers into the country.

For Google it is of course a money making opportunity as well because of the vast value of keywords which candidates will need to buy to ensure that their sponsored link will top Google’s search pages. After all it is expected that this election will be the most expensive ever for candidates to run.

The real point for me though was that elections are now about white collar workers rather than the traditional blue collar read labour. This is where society is heading to in the developed countries for which read hi-tech and services industries. Having said that, Hillary’s website is not really Web 2.0 ready. Her website does have some interactive elements in that questions may be forwarded and the user can sign up to her campaign. But Web 2.0? Nope. Her visit to Google obviously didn’t rub off on her.