Internet giant Google is being used by US presidential candidates as a platform to address American people in the run up to the 2008 elections.Those who have already made the trip to the firm's Californian headquarters include Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, John McBain, Ron Paul and Barack Obama, the New York Times reports.
According to Kathleen Jamieson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, the visits were intended to align candidates with the most technologically advanced sector of the economy, "signalling identification with the future".
Indeed, during his visit to the search engine provider last month, Mr Obama stated that he would want to help the "Googles of today" realise their dreams and drive forward science and technology.
When he went on to extol more broadband internet access and an "open internet", the crowd of Google employees surrounding him erupted into spontaneous applause.
All of Google's 16,000 staff are able to watch the presidential hopefuls' visits, with those who cannot make it into the area of the headquarters when the events are staged permitted to watch it in real time over the company's internal network.
Each of the visits are available to view on YouTube, although they have experienced limited popularity so far, with Ms Clinton's Google visit only being viewed around 54,000 times.
Mr Paul's July visit, however, has had more interest, having been watched in the region of 350,000 times.
