Neusner was one of nearly 3,000 donors who stumbled onto a network of look-alike campaign websites that have netted more than $570,000 this year in what some are calling a sophisticated political phishing scheme.

Derided as a gimmick, the app is reborn as a tool for organizing and for pushing Romney's content on the social web. Supporters who downloaded it %u201Chave become our home base,%u201D sais Moffat.

While the candidates are busy battling it out, the Web design world is entrenched in its own debate about how to address the mobile Web: creating separate mobile websites versus creating responsive websites.

Obama's digital effort stands out first for its scale on various platforms compared with Romney's.

Experts in digital media say campaigns and political organizations of all stripes increasingly use the "microsites" as tools to draw attention to an issue, brand an opposing candidate or raise money around specific themes.