Politics and Elections Blog
Trends, tools and news from the Google Politics & Elections team
The GOP Final Four
Friday, March 30, 2012
While college basketball fans descend on New Orleans for the
NCAA’s Final Four
, another "final four" compete across the country for the Republican presidential nomination.
As the primary schedule slows down, we measured delegates and states won, YouTube views, Search interest, and Google+ fans to bring you the GOP final four. Looks like Mitt Romney leads in all categories except YouTube views and Search interest, where Ron Paul and Rick Santorum lead these respective areas.
click image to enlarge
Posted by Natalie Vernon, Google Politics & Elections Team
Four Screens to Victory
Thursday, March 29, 2012
As we’ve shown through our search trends series, voters across the globe turn to Google and YouTube first to research, understand and share political views and candidates everyday. However, Google isn’t just a tool for voters. Our Politics & Elections Team has created solutions that help campaigns and candidates - up and down the ballot - organize, reach the electorate, and persuade undecided voters by connecting with them. Increasingly today, that connection with voters isn’t just happening at front doors and local coffee shops. It is happening online as voters use the Web to get involved in the issues that matter to them.
The Internet has fundamentally transformed how voters receive information on candidates and issues and has helped shift politics from a passive process to an active, participatory one. For campaigns and candidates, that means that the because of the Internet access to relevant political information no longer comes from one place--or one screen. Our recent research shows that voters - YOUR VOTERS - use an average of 14.7 sources of information to help make their candidate selection and are connected to multiple devices throughout the day (
Google/Shopper Sciences, 2011
).
So, whether your goal is a seat on the town council, building up support for your chosen issue, or even a race for the White House, integrated marketing efforts must engage voters across four screens: television, computers, tablets and mobile phones. Even if your goal isn’t 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but rather a seat in the State House or
looking to help fix a local issue
, research shows that using four screen ad campaigns are 48% more effective in driving campaign awareness and 77% more effective in driving campaign engagement.
Today, we’re launching “
Four Screens to Victory
” inside the
Google Politics & Elections Toolkit
where candidates and staff can make the web work for you. By learning how Google’s measurable solutions can win the moments that matter, campaigns can accelerate and amplify the impact of your television ads and help create a multi-platform marketing strategy that reaches voters where they spend time. With a solid strategy, a lot of hard work, and a little help from the team here at Google, we hope you and your supporters will be using your four screens - tablet, smartphone, TV and computer - to read good news on election night.
Posted by: Charles Scrase, Google Politics & Elections Team
Obamacare Spikes in Search Interest
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
This week, the Supreme Court is presiding over what some legal experts are calling a landmark case. The nine justices will determine whether certain sections of the Affordable Care Act are constitutional. Over the last two years, Republicans and Democrats have engaged in a fierce branding war over what to call the law. While the Obama Administration has used the phrases “Affordable Care Act” and “healthcare reform,” opponents of the legislation have labeled it “Obamacare.”
We decided to take a look at the last year’s worth of Google search trends to see which label has gained the most traction. While the phrases “Affordable Care Act” and “healthcare reform” were the most-searched in early 2011, “Obamacare” has become the most common searched term of the three for 2012. We also looked at the
top rising searches
associated with "Obamacare."
(click image to enlarge)
Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team
Obama's March Madness
Thursday, March 22, 2012
On March 14,
President Barack Obama
tried his hand at filling out a NCAA March Madness bracket. He appeared on
ESPN
's SportsCenter alongside Andy Katz to walk through
his picks
. His winner? The North Carolina Tar Heels.
How did Obama's bracket perform in terms of search interest? Turns out [Obama NCAA Bracket] was
a breakout word
associated with Obama. His bracket video has also seen over 67,000 YouTube views and coverage in over
2,000 news articles
.
Posted by Natalie Vernon, Google Politics & Elections Team
Hanging out with the candidates
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
In American politics, there's nothing quite so frantic or fast-paced as a presidential campaign. Short campaign stops and relentless travel schedules can make it difficult for candidates to sit down with supporters and discuss the issues. Google+ Hangouts have made that a little bit easier, providing new ways for politicians, political organizations, advocates and campaigners to connect directly over video to share information online. We're excited to see more and more politicians use tools like these to engage voters.
Later today, Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will host a Hangout with supporters on his Google+ page. Supporters will be able to ask the Governor questions about his campaign in the Hangout, or by posting them on Google+ with the hashtag
#AskMitt
. This hangout will kick-off a series of campaign Google+ Hangouts including all the GOP presidential candidates.
Be sure to tune into
Governor Romney’s Google+ page
at 2:45 PM ET to catch his live hangout with supporters.
Posted by Steve Grove, Head of Community Partnerships, Google+
How much do rising gas prices affect Google search interest?
Sunday, March 18, 2012
With gas prices
up 17 percent
since January 1, President Obama and his GOP opponents have been
trading barbs
over a president’s role in raising or lowering gas prices. As Republican advisor Dan Schnur
put it
, “Voters see gas prices up on signs every block when they drive home from work.”
We decided to take a look at nationwide search trends for the phrase [gas prices] since January 2011 and compared them to average gas prices over the same time period. We found that a rise in gas prices did cause a spike in searches, but that the volume of searches stabilized shortly afterward, even if there wasn’t a sharp drop in prices.
(click to enlarge)
Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team
The Search for President: Iowa to Alabama
Thursday, March 15, 2012
The battle for the GOP presidential nomination seems to be far from over. We took a look back at the primary race starting in Iowa running through last Tuesday's contests in Alabama, Hawaii, and Mississippi.
As each candidate has had his turn in the spotlight -- whether it was Santorum’s win in Iowa, Romney’s in New Hampshire, Gingrich’s in South Carolina, or Obama’s State of the Union address -- each event corresponded with a spike in nationwide search interest. In some cases, a rise in searches preceded a candidate’s win in a primary state (we recently
showed
Santorum leading the pack in Alabama and Mississippi searches).
(click to enlarge)
Posted by Natalie Vernon, Google Politics & Elections Team
Who's leading Google searches in Alabama and Mississippi?
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Today's GOP presidential primaries in the deep south are being watched closely. Recent polls have found Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney neck and neck in both
Alabama
and
Mississippi
, with Rick Santorum trailing not far behind them.
According to Google Insights for Search, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have been the search traffic frontrunners over the last week, with Santorum leading the field in the last 2 days leading up to today's primaries. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have wrestled for third and fourth throughout the week.
Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Politics Team
What do Google search trends tell us about Super Tuesday?
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Following an exciting Super Tuesday, the Google Politics and Elections team decided to look at how each Republican candidate competed in the Super Tuesday states, in the categories of states won, Google Search interest, delegates won, and percentage of votes achieved. In six of the 10 states, the candidate who received the most search interest prior to Super Tuesday also won the state.
We also compared searches for the GOP candidates with searches for President Obama, who still commands the most national interest.
(click to enlarge)
Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team
Super Tuesday: Who’s ahead and what’s at stake?
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Today, voters in 10 states will head to their polling places to determine the allocation of 419 delegates to the remaining four GOP candidates. Last week, Gallup released the results of a new nationwide poll that found economic and unemployment issues to be the chief concerns of most voters. Healthcare and national security ranked not far behind while social issues and immigration trailed the pack.
In the graphic below, we provided a state-by-state comparison of search trends for the candidates and issue-related keywords for the past three days. While the economy and healthcare remained paramount across all Super Tuesday states, social issues like abortion and gay marriage ranked as the third most-searched terms in seven of them. Terrorism and national security ranked third only in Alaska, North Dakota, and Vermont. Among the candidates, Mitt Romney leads in searches for six of them, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul split the rest. Ohio, the most closely-watched Super Tuesday state, is among those with Romney in the lead.
(Click to enlarge)
Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team
Mapping the March to Tampa
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Super Tuesday has arrived! So far, 12 states have held caucuses or primaries to nominate a Republican presidential candidate in time for the RNC convention in Tampa this August. Today, 10 more states with 419 delegates at stake will get a chance to add their voices. From Alaska’s Bering Sea to the Georgia’s Golden Isles, voting will span five time zones and over 4,000 miles; by the time polling closes in Nome, AK, it’ll be 12 a.m. on the East Coast.
Our Politics & Elections team has mapped the results of every contest since Iowa, and now we’ve upgraded the visualization. The new map lets you track both the state-by-state numbers as well as the results by county, with delegate counts in addition to raw numbers and percentages
from the AP
. This auto-updating map will live on
google.com/elections
, and outlets subscribing to Associated Press election results can also embed it on their site.
We also have some other great tools to help you make sense of this year’s political scene. Our
infographic gallery
features Google Insights for Search data, much of which is broken down by state to make sense of regional variation. Follow the
Google+ page
for Hangouts on Air with prominent political reporters and daily insight. And if you just want to quickly look up how things are going, you’ll find
fresh results in Google search
on both desktop and mobile.
Posted by Jesse Friedman, Google Politics & Elections Team
The most-searched candidates in Super Tuesday states
Friday, March 2, 2012
Next week, 10 states will determine the distribution of 437 delegates to the four remaining embattled GOP candidates. While Mitt Romney emerged from the Arizona and Michigan primaries still retaining his frontrunner status, Rick Santorum remains the most-searched candidate in 9 of the 10 Super Tuesday states over the past 30 days. Only in North Dakota does Ron Paul have the lead in searches.
We'll be posting more interesting candidate and relative search trends as we get closer to Super Tuesday.
Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team
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