If you’ve spent any time on the internets, you’ve probably seen Ron Paul’s name. He’s usually the first search term on Technorati, his articles are always on the front page of Digg, he’s been featured in Wired, interviewed on the Daily Show, the Colbert Report and Real Time With Bill Maher. But who is he? How does a man with so little traditional media exposure find his way to top of the internet, so to speak?

I’ve just searched for his MySpace profile, and I’ve found something interesting. There are at least three profiles that are almost identical for him. Same text, same videos, just a different background or typeface. Hmm.

Speaking of Digg, I came across an article about his internet celebrity. It’s written by Ron Sansone, and comes from the International Association of Online Communicators (?), and is an investigative look into the Ron Paul Digg Phenomenon.

How does Digg work? Essentially it is a bookmarking service. You find an article you like, submit it to Digg. Other people trolling around Digg, looking for interesting articles, find it, like it and add ‘Diggs’ to bring it up the rankings. Articles, pictures, pages, and videos on the front page of Digg have anywhere from 113 to 578 Diggs (as of 12:21pm CST 7/4/07, when I checked). Articles on the front page, by virtue of their high profile, in turn get more Diggs. More people are directed to the articles in question.

What Sansone discovered is that there are a core of about 30 Ron Paul supporters, who do nothing on Digg but Digg any article with a mention of Paul’s name. It doesn’t take too many to get the ball rolling. Sansone discovered this when he posted a blog entry that mentioned Paul in the title, but scarcely in the article itself. He ended up suddenly with 17 Diggs, more than he ever got for a blog post.

I’ve noticed it here at the Idea of Progress, too. This is the third in a series of Who the Fuck is Ron Paul? and I’ve gotten more page views on these than any other postings, and I couldn’t figure out why. I had rationalized that it must be my insightful and witty writing style, but I think Sansone’s more on track than that.

If this sounds like a lot of silliness to you, like “Who cares if his name gets pushed up on some bookmarking site?” bear this in mind. More than likely, his television appearances have been generated by the sudden ‘interest’ in him on the the internet. His Daily Show appearance, certainly.

It’s not that Ron Paul himself is personally behind this, although I’m certain his campaign is intimately aware of the situation. Paul is 71, and find me the internet savvy 71 year old that even knows what a blog is. I don’t think that he’s a psycho, and while I am hardly a Libertarian, if a Republican was to be elected, he’s hardly the worst of the candidates. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to give his campaign a pass for their internet manipulation.

Maybe just a gold star for thinking creatively.