Google Asks Users To Help Track Political Trends

By Leslie Horn | October 10 | PCMAG.COM


Now that the the 2012 election season has taken off, Google is tracking political trends. According to a post on Google’s Politics & Elections blog, Google is asking for your help.

“As the campaign season heats up, one of the way our Politics & Elections team has begun to participate in the conversation is by highlighting some of the more interesting trends from our search data around candidates, issues, and campaigns,” Google’s Jake Parrillo wrote.

Parrillo said that by monitoring these trends Google can help explain why for example, GOP candidate Herman Cain is gaining in the polls while Texas Governor Rick Perry is slipping. He explained that the four of the top 10 cities with the most searches for Cain are major cities in Texas, and Google Trends have shown that Cain is on the rise in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio.

To track the campaign, Google has observed the items that people have searched during events like the Iowa straw poll and last week’s Fox News Debate.

However, it’s impossible for Google to track all of the trends on its own, so Parrillo said the company wants users to share the trends they have spotted themselves.

“We’re looking to you – the user – to help us find and discover interesting patterns and trends in search data. Do you support a candidate in a race? Do you support an issue? Turn to our tools to show that you are part of a larger trend,” Parrillo added, noting that some of these user-spotted trends will be highlighted on the Politics & Elections blog throughout campaign season. He also encouraged users to tap into Google tools like Insights for Search, Google Trends, Google Ngram Viewer, and Google Correlate to help track the election.

A couple of other Internet companies have already gotten involved with the 2012 presidential race. Twitter last month launched political ads. Less than a week later, Facebook announced the formation of its own political action committee.

For more from Leslie, follow her on Twitter @LesHorn.