Mr Rudd effectively used internet profiles on MySpace and Facebook and his slick Kevin07 website during last year's federal election but, since becoming Prime Minister, he hasn't had much time for the web. But last night Mr Rudd sent an email to all his supporters informing them of his new website, KevinPM.com.au, which includes links to MySpace, Facebook, a new YouTube account, a Flickr photo sharing page and his newly created Twitter page for broadcasting short snappy text messages.

In an introductory video on the new site, Mr Rudd says his aim is to show the public exactly what the Government is up to and to create a two-way dialogue. "A new Australia needs a new way of governing and that also means keeping in touch with the community in different ways as well," Mr Rudd says. His Liberal counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, also has accounts on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and YouTube but, while Mr Rudd is new to Twitter, Mr Turnbull has been communicating with Twitter users since mid-October.

Mr Turnbull's Twitter updates have evolved from bland remarks announcing he is "in Parliament" and "reading the morning papers" to sharing links to his statements and responding directly to other Twitter users. At the time of writing, Mr Turnbull has 1264 people following his Twitter updates (94 have been made so far), while Mr Rudd, who joined yesterday, has 323 followers and two updates.

"There were 670 followers as I understand it and at 10.30 last night it crashed and all the Twitter followers disappeared with the crash and there were only 33 left then," Mr Rudd's spokeswoman said. "It's because Twitter essentially is not used to people getting so many followers in such a short time." The claim has been verified with those who saw Rudd's Twitter page last night.

Mr Turnbull has been ranked 25th on a list of the top 100 influential Australian Twitterers, based on the number of people following his updates. He has said on Twitter that he writes his updates personally, while Mr Rudd's spokeswoman said she would need to come back with information on whether Mr Rudd updates Twitter himself.

Twitter's 140-character limit for each message could pose challenges for the Prime Minister, who is known to ramble. In the US elections, the Republican ticket largely ignored the internet while President-elect Barack Obama embraced it, using it to project a young, switched-on image and for fund-raising. Mr Obama's official Twitter account has almost 130,000 followers, however, he hasn't posted any updates since winning the election..

Mr Rudd added four new videos to his YouTube account yesterday, including one introducing his new website and others announcing his plans to fix the ailing economy. Mr Turnbull, on the other hand, has added only two new clips to his YouTube page in the past six months.

Mr Rudd has 24,479 friends on MySpace and 24,897 fans on Facebook, while Mr Turnbull has 292 MySpace friends and 5000 friends on Facebook. But Mr Turnbull has at least one weapon in his armoury that Mr Rudd lacks - blogs for his pet dogs.

