When it comes to finding out which candidate is on course to win the race for the White House next week, forget the countless opinion polls being conducted on a seemingly daily basis, and look no further than Fun Text.

The MMS content provider has measured the volume of its election-themed multimedia messages, and found that Obama content currently accounts for 82% of Fun Text messages sent, to McCain's 18%.

 That gives the Democratic candidate a far greater lead than his Republican rival compared with actual polls like Gallup, which on Tuesday showed Obama leading McCain 51% to 44%. This was a poll of likely voters, as opposed to people texting the word "change" to each other, or whatever it is McCain stands for.

"Unlike an online poll where people are quizzed on their preference, this pulse takes into account people's actual use of this content," said James Pycock, director of Fun Text, in a statement. "We hadn't anticipated that this could be such a great way of predicting who might win the US presidential election," he said.