Why is it that both political campaigns feel the need to have their own social networks. Barack Obama has my.barackobama.com and John McCain has McCainSpace, which just relaunched with a new design from KickApps after failing massively on its own. The new McCainSpace design itself is functional enough, giving McCain supporters a central place to discuss election issues via blogs, forums, videos, and photos. But I’m not sure who the site is supposed to appeal to other than lonely Young Republicans who don’t have any friends on Facebook.
The site is aimed at “Generation08,” presumably the young’uns that the campaign is having a hard time reaching. The logo and default photo image remind me of something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (remember that scene with the alien light coming through the doorway?) And then there’s the welcome video of McCain on the homepage (embedded below), saying “Greetings my friends.” Greetings, gramps.
Creating a separate social network makes little sense in the age of MySpace and Facebook. But McCain isn’t doing so good on those sites. He has only 226,000 “supporters” on Facebook, compared to 1.4 million for Obama. But maybe that’s just because he’s more of a MySpace guy (note the similarity of the McCainSpace name). But even there, McCain only has 66,665 “friends” versus 467,814 for Obama.
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‘Greetings Gramps’…. priceless.
i’m not even a mccain fan but this site is making me feeling guilty for beating up on the elderly. Man, is he that clueless?
And, um, mccainSPACE? What’s next? MccainBook? Mccainku? MccainSter? How tacky & unimaginative (like his ideas ZING!).
Speaking of which, Generation08?? How about Generation O NO?
since i never saw that movie i don’t know the reference but isn’t that a (poorly aliased) silhouette of the Doors’ Jim Morrison?
Erick, thanks for including some screen shots so that I don’t have to actually see the site.
Erick,
Your comments regarding McCain’s age (”Gramps”) and his site’s supposed followers (”lonely Young Republicans who don’t have any friends on Facebook”) reveal more about you than McCain and his supporters.
Clearly, you are free to write what you like, but I just wanted you to know that to me, and others apparently, those statements make you appear petty and sophomoric. (Unfortunately, your references have spawned even more juvenile replies from some readers.)
My advice is to stick to what you know: technology. Criticize his site as much as you like, but keep it professional. Venturing beyond that only diminishes your credibility. I enjoy reading your articles, so I offer this advice with sincerity.
(Full disclosure: If it were up to me, neither McCain nor Obama would be our next president.)
First of all, the gramps comment was a joke.
Second of all, he opened himself up to it by launching a social network aimed at “Generation08.” That’s a demographic play. And his message, IMHO, won’t play well to the demographic he is going after here.
that site was sophomoric.
perhaps erick has a lean, perhaps not. he posted something critical of the Dems a couple weeks back (that i was disagreed with) so that would seem to refute your idea –
but if the implementation is bad enough, any bias is irrelevant. i’d say erick nailed it & mccain opened himself to ridicule with such a lame site.
mccain doesn’t even know how to google but you’d expect his tech guys to know SOMETHING about um technology. they used gimmicky catchphrases and neon slacker-silhouettes to look cool & you know all like Generation-al & like stuff.
it was lame & deserved to be called out & it only made Gramps that much more older.
heck, ANY group that attempts to take shortcuts to “Web 2.0/socialize” their campaign/co/org/etc deserves to be panned.
yes, i like obama, no i don’t like mccain, yes i did the research to make informed opinions & IMHO obama’s a good candidate, mccain’s a hypocrite & erick just flat called the site what it was: a joke.
Erick,
I understand the statements I cited were meant as jokes. My point was that the level of humor was beneath the standards of you and TechCrunch.
I largely agree with the content of your article, but I found the jokes distracting from an otherwise worthy analysis, as did many readers (if the reply section is any indication).
In any event, thanks for taking the time to read my criticism and to reply. I’ve been reading TechCrunch since early ‘07, and will continue doing so.
“My point was that the level of humor was beneath the standards of you and TechCrunch.” - now that’s funny
Here’s a joke, Eric… You’re a slovenly, puggy middle-aged hypocrite with coke-bottle glasses. Now, isn’t that funny? Don’t be offended, it’s just a joke.
Greetings Erik the wacko liberal! Got any more hateful comments there to go along with your stoic hatred of America and your fawning love fest for Barrack Hussein Obama?
please keep talking. the more guys like you do, the better them “wacko libruls” do.
instead of wasting time debating, i say we just give you guys a mic!
Erick - not only are your comments juvenile, insulting and discriminatory, your logic seems pretty flawed…
“Creating a separate social network makes little sense in the age of MySpace and Facebook.” Right. How could anyone be so stupid to create their own community with their own look and feel, to own the customer experience and own the customer data? Just like why would any designer/manufacturer of goods, like Gap for instance, want to have their own retail stores when there are perfectly good brand department stores to sell through? So their items can hang on some roundtops with thousands of other items? Maybe because the retailer owns the display, the promotion, the pricing and the customer experience and data? Why would Fidelity retail their own mutual funds when there a perfectly good, big brokerage firms out there to sell through? In Facebook (and MySpace), a brand competes with all the other noise on Facebook, they are limited to Facebook’s look & feel and the capabilities they expose, they are constrained in how they communicate with customers and limited to the data they can access. Granted you need your own brand to stand on your own….but, and I hate to break this to you, both McCain and Obama are bigger brands than Facebook and MySpace combined with very impassioned supporters….it doesn’t seem too stupid for them to venture outside the constrained box of Facebook and MySpace.
Just exactly what is your area of expertise? Consumer marketing and sales? Or do you have a CS degree? Maybe you should re-evaluate who’s not so smart.
ooh - I have to side with Erik on this one….I cringe every time I see an online store…and I think, “Why are they so stupid to put up their own estore when there’s Amazon and eBay?” What can these people be thinking!?
that’s because all of mccain’s friends are on myLobbyistSpace.com ZING
kidding, kidding…
that’s because all of mccain’s friends are in nursing homes, and don’t know how to use computers ZING
kidding, kidding…well, kind of.
Hahaha… I just spent several delightful moments browsing through McCainSpace. However, my favorite John McCain Website is definitely LOLJohnMcCain. I did not expect to like Obama’s Vice Presidential candidate (link to Biden’s ebooks) quite this much, but I absolutely love him. And judging from McCainSpace, McCain’s people are terrified of their VP option…
I’m neither a Democrat or Republican, but it’s pretty clear from his writing that Erick Schonfeld is a Democrat.
Why does that matter? This is a blog, where opinions are allowed. Don’t like it? Go over to foxnews.com
wow Steve, your logic is so poor it makes me hit my forehead until my hand bleeds.
OMG. McCain is old? Really? You’re not just kidding - he’s like…a senior citizen with…what - a resume?
Talk about a bright shiny object syndrome.
Creepy… especially with that jazzy, broadway-in-lights font. This is like that restaurant that used to be cool, but they stopped updating their interior and now it’s just cheesy, smelly and dusty. Think Moose’s.
Site looks like they got a widget builder to build a social network…
Exactly!!
Have you checked out kickapps widget builder. its awesome! It makes creation of a social networking site so much easier, even a caveman can do it (in this case a grandpa).
BTW, bros before slows. Go Obama!
It is an insult in and unto itself.
Well, at least he has a sense of “friend” that fits with the Facebook generation, i.e. everyone you meet/talk to/look at is your friend.
Erick, “Gramps?” Tell me since you’re so smart and open-minded why it’s ok and cool to ridicule and belittle someone based on his/her age? Here’s a man who tirelessly served his country and sacrificed enormously for his country. And you ridicule him based on his age? I’ll bet you wouldn’t make fun of Obama because of his race, right? What have you ever done for your country other than publish this garbage?
Exactly. I wish ageism was as despised as racism in this election.
Well, being half-black doesn’t affect your ability to be president, whereas being really old and on the verge of death does. McCain is seriously so old and so unhealthy he may just croak in office. Who would vote for someone who can’t possibly do what he says because he’ll die before he has a chance?
In a more personal note, given the things McCain says he’s going to do, him dying before he can do them is the only hope we have to save this country from complete and total demise.
Kelly went a little farther than I would, but ridicule based on age sunk this blog lower than I expected. Would’ve expected a little more of a reasoned attack.
I guess I wouldn’t anticipate political attacks in general, but it’s pretty predictable. I haven’t seen too much discussion of the problems on my.BrackObama.com that actually relate to blogging somewhat, where their openness led to insane rants that the campaign had to delete, creating a somewhat interesting question on how open is too open, when is cleaning up censorship, etc. Instead we get ‘gramps’.
Don’t get your panties in a bunch. It was a joke. Lighten up, you may live as long as McCain.
Signed,
Long-time registered Republican and Obama supporter
And a similar “joke” about Obama, based on a similarly broad demographic would result in what type of backlash?
McCain scares the crap out of me. He comes off as an insane grumpy old nut.
Yeah, a complete nutjob, probably the type of guy that would say a ray of light would come down and let me know I had to vote for him, someone that would suggest that their election would stop the rising of the seas. I agree, totally nuts.
Oh also, he’s old.
Spoken like a true Obama supporter. Look at the style and ignore the substance. Do you even know what McCain and Obama stand for?
By the way… I don’t particularly like either of them.
He also crashed 5 airplanes for his country, and graduated 5th from last in his class at the Naval Academy.
http://www.vietnamveteransagai.....five_u.htm
Perfect, if stuff like this is legit criticism in your world then I assume you would be concerned by 20 years of Black Liberation Theology, as well as working with Bill Ayers on the massive failure of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. That’s his executive experience– working with slum lords and squandering millions in radically failed education reform in Chicago. Good point timmy.
I think they should change it to Generation80
lol
does anyone else cringe every time McCain uses “my friends”, it sounds so creepy…reminds me of old people who call the mailman their friend because he pays attention to them and lights up their day
he might as well say “hello Buddy” and what i dont get is why wont myspace send a C&D letter for using “Space” in the domain if a social network environment? but what i think is really sad is that he only created this site to play “Catch Up” to Obama. Which i must say has an amazing web presence. Kind of shows you the persons ability to execute a well designed and organized campaign. Really this maccainspace looks like software out of a box with stock images. Wheres the creativity? wheres the thinking out of the box? and why does McCain look like a tool in the video on the homepage?
Instead of the Main Menu they should have the McCain Menu. lol. Zing!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - grampa !
McTwitter. McFlickr. MechCrunch.
Funny
:) 
http://74.125.45.104/search?q=.....&gl=us
You need a disclaimer. TechCrunch moderator Bryan Migliorisi
staga.net/Members/Bryan
linkedin.com/pub/3/123/845
works at Kickapps. Kickapps is one of our competitors, and I only think it’s fair that you let everybody know that TechCrunch is affiliated with them when you make a story out of their software.
@T3chlusive
I am a moderator on the TechCrunch forums only. I have nothing to do with the editorial process at TechCrunch.com or any other TC owned websites.
I have been a moderator since the forums were introduced and my affiliation with the TechCrunch forums predates my employment at KickApps by well over one year.
More importantly, KickApps and TechCrunch have absolutely no affiliation with one another.
“Cindy, where are my internet glasses? I’d like to do some more of that myspacing…”
HAHAHAHAH! thanks, best comment here!
The irony is that if you just read comments you would think that the internet is populated exclusively by angry and immature wing nuts… you would think that’s pretty much an ideal demographic for a social networking site.
Wow, this site sinks to new levels of low! I had to go back and look at the “About” section of this website to see what its purpose is…”TechCrunch…is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.
The only part they got right on this one is “obsessively profiling” What’s up with the personal insults, political bias and discriminatory remarks both by the editor and the readers? Erick should be ashamed of himself…but seems the readers are eating it up. Great “journalism” is suppose…
This is awesome. I have it from a closely placed source that McCainSpace is rolling out an application platform tomorrow. Forget F8..this is G8. And it’s gonna be massive.
You can sign up to learn McCain’s VP pick before everyone else. To do that, you just need to install the new SuperPoke on McCainSpace. Once you’ve installed it, send a virtual Botox shot (in honor of Cindy, of course) to at least 100 of your McCain space friends. Then, at 3am on Friday, McCainspace will announce the VP choice via notification spam. SMS and email? Obama is so 2005.
Do not miss this opportunity, people.
Eric you’re becoming the master of comment bait. kudos
Wow, dude. have you seen Obama’s social networking site? McCain’s is actually better.
It’s kind of late for a relaunch. Why didn’t they do this months ago? Shows how out of touch the McCain team is.
Didn’t anyone try to actually POST/SEND a repy to… anything there? They have a “naughty words filter” that is so overactive that you cannot post ANYTHING that has these letters next to each other: A S S.
And if you try, you will get big red letters informing you of your violation.
So class, assessment, Massachusetts, etc are all “spelled” bizarely- as in
cl_ss or cla**.
It is astonishing that grown adults are meekly putting up with this imposed censorship.
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