"It couldn't have happened without the Web," Gore said.

Gore closed this year's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco by discussing the role of the Web in the election, his involvement with an Internet TV company and the dangers of climate change. The full-capacity crowd at the Palace Hotel greeted him and sent him off with standing ovations.

Obama's innovative use of the Web during his campaign, for everything from encouraging supporters to vote to raising funds, marks a turning point in how politicians use the Internet and in how citizens can participate for social change, Gore said.

"What happened in the election opens up a whole new range of possibilities," he said. "Now's the time to really move swiftly to exploit these new possibilities."

Gore also talked about how his company Current TV, of which he is chairman and cofounder, is attempting to use the Internet to break television's decades-old monopolization of information, which he said has had negative consequences.