Politics and Elections Blog
Trends, tools and news from the Google Politics & Elections team
Taking a peek at political trends ahead of our Florida debate
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
With our
Fox News GOP Presidential debate
less than 48 hours away, we thought it would be useful to once again look at Google search trends to see which candidates users are searching for.
We last
looked at search trends
and the GOP presidential race in early August just ahead of the Iowa Straw Poll. From former candidates (Tim Pawlenty) to new candidates (Texas Governor Rick Perry), the dynamics of this race have changed dramatically in the past 4 weeks. This time around, we found:
1. Since joining the field in August, Rick Perry has jumped out to be the most searched front-running candidate nationally.
2. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is still very much in the search race - contrary to media reports, our data shows this may not a two-person contest between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney!
3. Past debates generated interest among Google users on hot-button issues like HPV and Social Security.
4. Which state searches most for Ron Paul? Montana. (I didn’t predict that either!).
5. Search queries mirrored the results in the NY-9 Special Election recently.
Rick Perry takes the lead
[Rick Perry] has taken the lead in searches on Google. As more and more Americans hear, read, and talk about him, they’re looking to the web to discover more about the issues, his positions, and his background. Since joining the race, he’s
held the lead among the front-running candidates in terms of overall search numbers
.
Bachmann hanging tough
Back in early August,
we learned that Michele Bachmann was the most searched candidate both in Iowa and across the country. Heading into the Iowa Straw Poll, we showed her with a commanding lead in search volume and when all the votes were tallied, she won. A peek at our search trends shows that, despite some recent claims, the GOP race is not a two-person race. Rather,
it might still be a three-person race.
Although Bachmann has dropped behind searches for [Rick Perry] across the country, she is still more searched than [Mitt Romney].
Debates Drives Interest in Issues
Tomorrow at our debate with Fox News, we’ll be looking to user-submitted questions and search data to help frame the debate and prompts given to the candidates. The issues that Americans care most about will take center stage.
In a blog post yesterday
, we showed that the top-ranking categories are Government Spending & Debt and Jobs & Economy. These issues will dominate the evening. However, if past debates are any measure, there could be a breakout issue that isn’t on anyone’s radar ahead of the program. Resulting from recent debates in Florida and New Hampshire, two hot-button issues emerged and voters turned to the web to discover more on the topics. With the perceived-frontrunner Governor Perry being pressed on his positions, his opponents shed light on his stances. As a result, in the days after the debates, searches for [
Social Security Ponzi Scheme
] and searches [
HPV Rick Perry
] and [HPV] vaccines - saw major increases as voters turned to the web to discover more and get to the truth of the matters.
Montana is Ron Paul country
Some of you may be wondering where Congressman Ron Paul is in all of this search activity.
Having accurately predicted his second place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll
- based on search trends - we’ve noticed that over the summer, the state with the highest interest in Ron Paul is Montana. Surprised me, too! Other top states include early states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and Florida, so perhaps this data bodes well for some key primaries.
NY-9 Results
Finally, we thought it would be useful to walk through some of the ways that our search data has served as a good proxy for offline behavior - and in this case - elections. We’ve already showed you above how search data in Iowa showed a Bachmann - Paul finish in the Iowa Straw Poll in August, but more recently we saw parallels in search data and election results in the special election for 9th Congressional District which pitted Republican [Bob Turner] against Democrat [David Weprin].
The search trends show Turner pulling away to a lead
in the days leading up to election day. He went on to win.
Like most of you, all of us on the Google Politics and Elections team will continue to be keeping a close eye on the race and tomorrow night’s debate promises to be a great moment in the campaign. Stay tuned here for more search trends as the race heats up.
Posted by: Jake Parrillo, Politics and Elections Project Communications Team
A global discussion on open government
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Open government is an important, timely topic -- rarely go through a day without interacting with public data or government services, whether it’s
checking the weather
or
taking public transit
. Today, we’re joining 46 governments from all corners of the world to
launch the Open Government Partnership
and establish openness as an essential pillar of 21st century governance.
You can watch a live stream of today’s sessions on
Google’s YouTube channel
.
As part of today’s conversation, we’ll be talking about three elements of openness. The first is the power of people. We fundamentally believe in the capacity of people to innovate and create change, and the people around the world leading open government efforts are shining examples of how reform can happen.
The second is the power of trust. In our global economy, trust is an invaluable currency -- consider it a killer app in the digital age. Trust is critical to the relationship between the institution and the individual. And the establishment of trust starts with transparency. The more open governments are with their citizens, entrepreneurs and partners -- the better opportunities they create, and the more successful societies they build.
The third is the power of open systems and technology. We fundamentally believe that open systems win, as our colleague Jonathan Rosenberg has talked about
before
. Open systems lead to more innovation, resources, and freedoms for citizens -- and a vibrant, competitive ecosystem to create jobs and grow our economies.
Open systems - which include a myriad of policies and practices along with open standards, open source technology and open information - have already shown the potential to spawn industries and bring increased creativity, better commerce and more effective decision-making across our respective sectors and communities. They establish meritocracies that harness the intellect of the people and spur sectors to compete, innovate, and win based on the real value of their ideas, products and services.
We believe that open systems are the way for us to have the broadest impact for the most people, in their power to deliver information, and in the power of information to do good -- to inspire enthusiastic innovators who will seize on opportunities and create inventions that will benefit people in ways we can’t yet fathom.
We applaud the efforts of all people, countries and organizations working on transparency -- and we hope today’s launch reaffirms the power of openness.
Posted by Ginny Hunt, Google's Public Sector Program Manager
Fox News/Google Debate: Digging into your questions
Monday, September 19, 2011
(
Cross-posted from the Official YouTube Blog
)
With three days to go before the Fox News/Google Debate, we’ve seen more than 16,000 questions from all 50 states submitted to the Fox News
YouTube channel
. During Thursday’s live event in Orlando, you’ll see a selection of these questions posed to the GOP candidates live on stage. As we count down to tomorrow’s midnight ET submission deadline, here’s a look at the questions you want answered by the candidates bidding for the 2012 Republican nomination.
The top issues on your minds? The Government Spending & Debt and Jobs & Economy categories rank highest in question volume—not surprising with
unemployment above 9 percent
and a summer spent debating the debt ceiling. Health care, which dominated political chatter for the first year of Obama’s presidency, now trails all other issues.
* NOTE: This chart excludes the “Other” category, which has received 26% of all questions, ranging from education to State’s rights.
You also want to hear from specific candidates in the GOP field. Ten percent of the total questions received referenced a specific candidate, and of those, newcomer Gov. Rick Perry leads the pack. Outweighing all of the GOP candidates in mentions? President Obama. Questioners referenced the current president over 1,000 times, nearly twice as many times as Gov. Perry, and ten times as much as the previous president, George W. Bush.
Interest in the race spans the country and the globe, with questions submitted from Indiana to Israel, South Dakota to South Korea. In the US, the cities leading question submissions are:
Houston
Miami
New York
San Diego
Austin
It’s not too late to submit your own question, or vote on the ones you like, at
www.youtube.com/foxnews
. Then, on Thursday, watch the live debate unfold there at 9pm ET, and see how the candidates respond.
Posted by: Will Houghteling, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “
Flying over planet Earth
.”
Choose the questions for the GOP candidates in the FOX News/Google Debate
Thursday, September 1, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Official Google Blog
and
YouTube Blog
)
If you’ve been watching the 2012 Republican presidential race from the sidelines, now is your chance to get involved: Google and FOX News will present a GOP primary debate in Orlando, Florida on September 22, and you can drive the conversation by submitting and voting on questions for the candidates. The
Fox News/Google Debate
will combine the questions you submit on YouTube with maps, facts and information to enrich and guide the discussion. You can vote thumbs up or down on the questions using Google Moderator, and many of the top-voted will be put straight to the candidates to answer. The result—an informative dialogue about the future of our country centered on the issues you care most about.
You can submit your questions starting today, in video or in text, at
www.youtube.com/foxnews
. The debate will be live streamed on YouTube as well as broadcast on the FOX News Channel at 9pm ET on Thursday, September 22. Throughout the evening, we’ll use Google’s
public data
and
search trends
on air to give greater context to the questions, and help you make a more informed decision at the polls come November 2012. We hope you’ll join us—
submit your question now
and let your voice be heard.
Posted by Steve Grove, Head of YouTube News and Politics
Searching the 2011 Iowa Straw Poll
Thursday, August 11, 2011
In just two days, Iowa voters will cast the first votes in the 2012 campaign at their traditional straw poll. The
Iowa Straw Poll
– so named because the results are non-binding and thus “as sturdy as straw” - is the first major event of the campaign. The nation’s political focus turns to Iowa starting tonight as eight of the announced candidates take the stage for the Fox News Ames Debate.
Iowans are rightfully proud of the role they play in presidential politics and take their responsibility seriously. They research the candidates. They investigate the issues. They’re engaged in the political process. That’s why the state makes for an interesting window to view the candidacies and issues through Google’s own data. As the country looks to Iowa, we thought it would be useful to examine what people in that state and across the country are searching for related to the 2012 Republican nomination.
Here’s what we found:
Michele Bachmann is the most searched
announced
candidate in Iowa right now, and nationally by a large margin.
Add in the names Sarah Palin and Rick Perry, and Bachmann still has the edge in Iowa.
But nationally, Perry becomes the current leader of search.
The most searched for issue in Iowa and across the country is jobs - by large margin.
And finally, the State of Iowa leads by a HUGE margin the number of searches for [
butter cow
]
Heading into the weekend,
[Michelle Bachmann] is the most searched-for announced candidate in Iowa.
She’s taken off and now far surpasses any other declared candidate, especially those that are attending the Straw Poll. If you look at the pack together, Congressman [Ron Paul] trails Bachmann in the number two spot, as do searches for Governor [Tim Pawlenty], Senator [Rick Santorum] and businessman [Herman Cain].
Nationally, the same trend stands up, even when those candidates who are skipping the Straw Poll are added to the mix. Across the country,
more people are searching
for [Michelle Bachmann] that are searching for Congressman [Ron Paul], Governor [Mitt Romney], Speaker [Newt Gingrich] and Ambassador [Jon Huntsman].
However, the search landscape changes dramatically when we include two much-discussed potential candidates: [Rick Perry] and [Sarah Palin]. In Iowa, where she has focused her campaign, [Michelle Bachmann]
retains her search lead
, but across the country she drops to the number two spot behind the currently surging [Rick Perry]. Without even entering the race, Governor Perry finds himself leading in search today.
Perry has some strong search momentum
as more voters across the country turn to Google to find out more information about his potential candidacy.
So that covers the candidates, what about the issues? In Iowa, the candidates are talking about health care reform, the national debt and ethanol among others. But, the top concern - and
most searched issue in Iowa
and
across the country
- this year is [jobs] - by a HUGE margin.
Republican Party officials are expecting more than
10,000 voters
to cast their vote on Saturday in Ames. But, that’s not the only big event taking place over the weekend.
Celebrating more than 150 years
, the Iowa State Fair includes highlights such as the the “fry everything” food booths to the famous butter cow. Don’t know what a butter cow is?
It is a life-size bovine crafted entirely of butter
and it is a huge part of the tradition at the Iowa State Fair. Iowa leads the country - by a huge margin -
in the number of searches
for [butter cow].
Here at Google, we are serious about our role in helping voters find information that is useful in the political process, and that’s why
we’re heading to Ames to participate in the Straw Poll with our Soapbox
. We’ll also be here from now until the General Election to help bring you a front-row seat to the race through a regular look at what’s happening online.
Posted by Ginny Hunt, Google Politics
Digital Politics in the Heart of Iowa
Monday, August 8, 2011
This Saturday, thousands of Iowans will flock to the center of the state to cast a vote for their preferred Republican Presidential candidate at the
Ames Straw Poll
. The Ames Straw Poll is held ahead of the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses and serves as an important indicator of strength of the candidates in the critical early state. Although many other states and organizations have adopted straw polls, the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa has become one of the most important during the election cycle. This decades-old campaign trail tradition keeps politics local and personal -- and this time, we’re making it digital.
The Iowa Republican
- a news site dedicated to producing original political commentary by and for Republicans - is kicking off the Iowa Republican Soapbox to bring the voices of local Iowans to the world. The Soapbox will let elected officials, candidates, and engaged Iowa Republicans speak out and have their say on issues and the direction of our country through
The Iowa Republican’s YouTube Channel
.
If you are planning on being in Ames on Saturday, August 13th, swing by our tent. We’ll have cold drinks, a roster of candidates stopping by and a spot for you on the Soapbox.
You’ve already made campaigns a more open political conversation using social media platforms like YouTube and Blogger, and now Google+. In the 2012 campaign, The Soapbox is our latest effort to help shift the balance back towards the voters. Everyday citizens across the globe are rolling up their sleeves, saying what they believe, and being heard.
As the country starts down the path to select our next President, we’re working to give you information and tools to be a larger part of the process from the beginning. We recently
announced
our participation in the Des Moines Register Debate to have candidates answer your questions in the final debate before the 2012 Iowa Republican Caucus. And we’re just getting started. We hope that a more open and local political conversation is useful to you, candidates, news organizations, and our democracy.
Posted by Ginny Hunt, Google Elections Product Manager
Engaging Civic-Minded Engineers to Reinvent nyc.gov
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
What do you get when you mix a city government that is prioritizing its digital presence with a homegrown, budding tech community?
Reinvent nyc.gov
, the City of New York’s first ever hackathon - an event where engineers meet to do collaborative programming. Held this past weekend at the entrepreneur campus
General Assembly
, the top prize at the hackathon was not money, but something even better: breakfast with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
To call redesigning nyc.gov a challenging task would be an understatement: Since its launch in 1996,
nyc.gov
has expanded from around 1,000 pages to over 500,000, covering every city agency and task force. The number of yearly visitors to City-run web pages (
33 million, or 24 million for nyc.gov
) is approaching that of visitors to Central Park (37 million), according to New York City’s Chief Digital Officer
Rachel Sterne
. Of course, over the course of 2 days, the goal was to generate ideas and prototypes for the redesign.
The event kicked off with welcomes from city officials who framed the event and gave a glimpse of the city’s digital future. Deputy Mayor for Operations for New York Steve Goldsmith said, “we want to be transparent in a usable way, and encourage collaborative decision making.”
As a tech partner, Google demoed developer tools for Maps, YouTube, and Android, and held office hours for the over 60 participants from New York to Kansas to California. As teams formed, a few of us also participated as designers and developers.
The Google team (from left to right): Ginny Hunt (Public Sector & Elections), Jeffrey Posnick (YouTube), Jenny Ye (Public Sector & Elections), Adam Koch (Android), Hilary Worden (google.org), Arnaud Sahuguet (google.org)
Less than 36 hours later,
submissions
were in, and the demos began. By and large, teams presented UIs that were search-centric, user-focused, and social. Some envisioned the new
nyc.gov
as not only making it easier to find information but also making it easier to connect with city officials and other New Yorkers. Participants also voiced their hopes for more machine-readable data and more APIs. After the judges deliberated, awards were presented in the categories of
Best Use of Local
,
Best Use of Social
,
Best User Interface
,
Most Innovative
, and
Judge’s Choice
. Moving forward, we hope that the New York City moves quickly in its redesign of
nyc.gov
and uses some of the new ideas produced this weekend.
Participants and judges gather for demos and awards (photo from NYC Digital)
Hackathons organized by cities are not a new phenomenon - earlier this month, Google Chicago hosted an
Apps for Metro hackathon
with the City of Chicago - but there’s much more that can be done. Rachel Sterne, who worked to put together Reinvent
nyc.gov
, wrote about the
advantages
of city-led hackathon efforts. Perhaps
NYC Digital
’s slogan - “technology in the public service” - sums it up bests: by opening up access to more interesting, real-time data and and making the public sector more participatory, governments will be able to tap into engineering resources of its citizens and build a sustainable community of civic hackers.
Posted by Arnaud Sahuguet, Product Manager,
google.org
and Jenny Ye, Public Sector & Elections Intern
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