WASHINGTON – Liberals were disgusted when Sarah Palin said President Barack Obama wanted “death panels” as part of his health care overhaul. They called it a deliberate deception and a despicable tactic.

But the term went viral. And now two groups that favor the legislation, including Obama’s own grass-roots organizing network, are trying to turn the phrase to their benefit.

Search the Web using Google for “death panels” and often an ad headlined “Death Panel Myth” will appear. It directs users to a “Setting the Record Straight” page on the BarackObama.com Web site that rebuts the claim that government panels would decide which patients could receive life-saving care.

Search for “euthanasia” or “Section 1233” – the provision of one health bill that is a focus of conservative criticism – and an ad appears from the liberal group MoveOn.org. It links to a page that addresses “five health care reform lies” from opponents of Obama’s overhaul.

Internet advertising has been a growing business for years. But the health care fight, which erupted in confrontational town-hall-style meetings over the summer, has generated more Internet ad buying than any public policy debate so far.

Interest groups of all sizes and perspectives have been buying ads linked to Internet search terms, often tweaking their ad words to keep up with the latest developments in fast-moving news cycles.

“Looking back at previous issue battles – even thinking about the Iraq war, which was a passionate issue – we didn’t see anything close to the amount of online activity,” said Peter Greenberger, director of political advertising for Google.

Obama’s allies have bought ads that appear when users search for “Obamacare” and “socialized medicine,” two other buzz terms commonly used by conservative critics of the proposed health care overhaul. Even the bland search term “health care reform” can generate dozens of paid links to various advocacy groups.

At one point this week, as many as 97 organizations were buying ads linked to aspects of the health care debate. They included the seniors lobby AARP, the liberal group Health Care for America Now and conservative stalwarts such as the Club for Growth.

The ads often solicit e-mail addresses and give readers the chance to sign up as volunteers or to donate money to help promote, or oppose, the health care legislation. Placement of the sponsored links depends on how much advertisers bid on a per-click basis, as well as Google’s assessment of the ads’ relevance.

“Even in the course of a year or the last 18 months, the way people are using the online medium has dramatically changed,” Greenberger said. “As the intensity and heat is rising off-line around this (health care) debate, we’re also seeing it increase online.”

Company officials began noticing the sizzle around health care when certain phrases leapt to the top of Google’s “hot trends” list, which shows the search terms that are most rapidly moving up the list of the day’s most popular Internet searches.

A peak in public interest occurred in mid-August, after Palin first spoke of “Obama death panels.” The phrases “death panels,” “Section 1233,” and “H.R. 3200” surged to high spots on the trends list.

One big draw for advocacy groups is the relatively cheap cost of buying ads online. Some groups, such as the Club for Growth, have spent as little as a few thousand dollars on certain search terms. Others are buying ads that are not linked to search terms but are placed on Web sites that are part of Google’s advertising network. Those ads can be targeted to Web sites in certain parts of the country or to sites with particular content, such as blogs or Web sites focusing on health care.

Still, it is not clear whether these paid messages are achieving the goals of moving public opinion or helping groups raise money or build membership.

“We’re still feeling our way through this,” said David Keating, executive director of the Club for Growth, adding that the group had spent about $4,000 on an “experimental” campaign.

“When we think we have the right formula, we’ll ramp it up,” he said.

The group is running an ad headlined “Stop Obama Socialism Now,” which appears when a user searches for “Obamacare” and other terms. Through the ads, the group has signed up about 1,000 new members in recent weeks, although few have made donations.

The liberal group Health Care for America Now has been experimenting with narrow targeting online. In one case, it bought ad space on the pages of Facebook users who indicated in their profiles that they worked on Capitol Hill.

The ads, which cost less than $500, ask those people to talk to their bosses about health care.

MoveOn.org officials say their ads have been a success, popping onto search screens about 900,000 times, with about 50,000 users clicking through to the Web site. The group’s campaign director, Daniel Mintz, said it was paying about 50 cents per click, and he called that a cost-effective way to reach motivated information seekers.

The number of people directed to the Web page might seem small, Mintz said, “but these people are more motivated to share the information.”

Still, it is impossible to know whether the ads are having any effect on public opinion – or on the lawmakers who will decide the fate of the health care bills.

Health Care’s Hottest Terms

Google’s list of popular search terms has included a variety of health care overhaul phrases and buzzwords. By buying ads that appear on-screen when someone uses those terms in an Internet search, activists and interest groups can reach people who are interested in the debate. The health care-related items listed below were on Google’s Aug. 11 “hot trends” list, which identifies the 100 search terms rising fastest in popularity. The terms’ rankings are given:

No. 4: section 1233 (a provision of one of the health bills)

No. 14: health care reform bill

No. 23: hr 3200 bill (the identification number for one of the House bills)

No. 55: obama town hall meeting

No. 62: obama town hall meeting today

No. 83: obama health care plan explained

Other terms that have appeared on the list in recent weeks include:

 • obamageddon

 • health care bill page 425

 • health care reform bill text

 • citizens for a public option

Los Angeles Times