Who’s winning the 2010 election on Google?
As the election draws nearer I thought it would be nice to see who is being searched the most in Google – and which political leader and political party is earning the most searches on the internet as the election campaign goes on. Searches obviously don’t mean votes (thank goodness, see first chart), but it shows the impression a person has had on the public – negatively and positively.
Political Party Leader searches
Here are the main leaders Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and “The Green Party” in place of leader Caroline Lucas to even things up. I have thrown in Nick Griffin here of the BNP to show the impact his appearance on Question Time had at the end of 2009. Most notably, the BNP leader’s search was greater then than the main party leaders’ has been in the early run up to this election 2010. Just goes to show what a bit of media hype can have on the search results.
Gordon Brown in the lead all year -but for the wrong reasons
Without Nick Griffin on this chart, the Green party had a spike of their own around last Summer, which coincides with the Brighton by-election victory as well as other summer news involving Green issues. Gordon Brown has however generally been ahead all year with plethora of media struggles including the bullying issue etc. But David Cameron and he are now pretty much level pegging in the race to be Internet’s most searched political leader.
Vince Cable and Nick Clegg
Vince Cable wasn’t taken that seriously when he was caretaker leader of the Lib Dems after Menzies Campbell departed. Nick Clegg on the other hand hadn’t fully been accepted by the media and the voters before the campaign started. However in search Vince Cable reflects his resurgence in the media and since his performance on Channel Four news.
Political Party searches on Google
The most important one is which party is getting searched for the most. People will be searching to see particular legislation promises or what policy changes are going to ensue with an election victory. If it was down to PageRank the Tories would win (as Labour has a horrid set of redirects on its homepage at the time of writing). Lib Dems would come a close second. However as if Google Insight search results were a direct reflection of how we are going to vote in a few weeks time, the scores below show pretty much what the polls are showing – that it’s too close to call, and that the Green Party and Lib Dems may surprise us come the 2010 election.
Cheryl Cole thrown in..
To put these searches into perspective, Cheryl Cole has been thrown in. The ex-Mrs Ashley Cole out stripped all the other political leaders in the run up to the 4 week campaign. But how will it progress? Will Wayne Rooney be searched for more than the political leaders? Or will the UK population surprise us all by actually taking an interest in the election?