Howard Dean made a splash with web-based fundraising four years ago, but this election was astounding for Obama’s use of the Internet for organizing at the grass(net)roots. I am sure the pundits are all correct that politics has changed permanently because of this — we’ll see more and more effort devoted to netizens in the future.  Here’s a couple interesting articles on the phenomenon. First, a review of search queries as political election predictors:  using Google’s Insight, Aaron Goldman matches up queries as predictions against the actual outcomes of the election.  Next, see Christine Beardsell’s nice article on the explosion in the use of video in the recent election, including some very influential user generated content (remember will.i.am’s ‘yes we can’ video?).  Christine argues that the Internet by its nature will demand more transparency and honesty from candidates:  do you agree?