Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spent $3.5 million on advertising online in the first quarter of 2008, $3 million of which went to Google. Granted, Obama's done well in contributions from Googlers — as of Q4 2007, contributors who listed Google as their employer contributed $338,965 to the Obama campaign. Which means that early investment has already paid off tenfold. Or considered another way, Obama can bank a 10 percent discount on ads from Google. The Clinton campaign? It only received a paltry $79,170. Other companies cashing in on election season? Yahoo got only $350,000, which was still $282,000 more than Microsoft. Even urban blog network Gothamist managed to pull in a direct buy worth $2,800.

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