The ads, which were placed through Google and appeared on other, less-partisan, news sites as well - were a quick and easy way for the Allegheny County executive to raise his profile among liberals who didn't know much about him but were unhappy with Corbett's Twitter subpoena.
It also pointed to something more important: The role that not only the wider Internet but also social-networking sites that were barely known the last time Pennsylvania elected a governor in 2006 now play in gaining new supporters, and firing up the ones they already have.
Last month's U.S. Senate primary in which Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak ousted longtime Sen. Arlen Specter was hailed by many as a triumph of so-called "old media" - specifically, a TV commercial blasting Specter's party change known as "The Switch."
But campaign aides to Sestak are quick to note that "The Switch" also was viewed about 88,000 times on the candidate's channel on the video-sharing Web site YouTube.com, reaching voters in areas of the state where it wasn't as cost effective to use extensive and costly TV.
"The congressman really believes in the power of video to get his message out," said Sestak's new media director, Tom McDonald - so much so that the Delaware County congressman created two channels on YouTube, a positive one as well as an attack site called The Real Specter.
It was in 2004 that the media first marveled at the power of the Internet to boost a candidate - most notably Democrat Howard Dean, whose campaign built close relationships with progressive bloggers that put the then-obscure Vermont governor on the radar screen. Six years later, those days seem quaint.
