Clinton rakes in the most Internet viewers

Washington (DC) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is leading in the Web metrics for politically-savvy Internet surfers, according to numbers reported by Nielsen.

In August, Clinton’s official websites reached a total of 760,000 viewers, which Nielsen says is more than any other presidential hopeful. However, she had the fewest traditional ads on radio and TV among her closest competitors in the polls.

Barack Obama was not far behind Clinton. He pulled in 750,000 Web viewers during the same time period. Meanwhile, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson counted a modest 103,000.

On the Republican side, there was overall less online activity for the candidates. Former Senator and renowned Law & Order star Fred Thompson received the most hits with around 410,000 viewers.

Fellow Republican Mitt Romney, running anywhere from second to fourth place depending on the poll, hit around 291,000 viewers in August but also had far and away the most extensive advertising campaign for August. Nielsen reported that Romney aired nearly 10 times more ad spots than the rest of the GOP candidates combined.

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, who is leading in the Republican primary, has a less-than-modest online appearance and has been running only a few advertisements in this early part of the campaign.