Despite intense mud slinging, dirty tricks and outright name calling, there is a great lesson in online tactics from the 2009 Israeli Prime Minister election. Leading political parties in Israel have not just picked up successful online tactics form the 2008 US federal election, but also literally copy/pasted them into their campaigns strategies. The replication of these tactics, especially in website form and structure set a new precedent in effective communication. In reality those websites that succeed in their objective to constantly upgrade a new precedent for successful communication, are a conduit rather than trademark.

Replicating successful form and structure from while adding unique cultural inferences fast tracks the learning curve. One of the best example is the likud website. This site is completely replicated from Obama’s campaign website:

Despite the blatant copy/paste (the only major difference being right-left Hebrew formatting) Likud uses a smart strategy, applying social tools, video and a structure that wasn’t around during the last election. The funniest part is that its political agenda couldn’t be farther right from Obama’s.

Success speaks for itself. Replicating a website so blatantly isn’t just reserved to foreign political parties.  In fact structure replication is smart for those who want to capture the momentum of success.  Yahoo incorporated a search box very similar to Google’s, the same year that Google issued released their IPO and introducted the power of search.  Prior to this, Yahoo’s core business model was built on predefined communities, not user driven search.

Familiarity adds to website value of usability at scale. Websites that present a structure and flow already familiar to users have a much higher likelihood of achieving their objective.  Practically speaking, this can only be accomplished at scale. Obama’s website site had a very high penetration rate in both the American public and foreign visitors alike.  Moreover, the guy won.  Using the scale and success of Obama’s website, likud outpaces it’s two biggest competitors.

Replication when done smartly, respectfully and cunningly merely advances the message being delivered to a targeted audience.  Although crude examples of blatant copy/pasting detract the connection between architecture and website, these same example streamline communication effectiveness.