Information poverty

Today is <a href="http://blogactionday.org/">Blog Action Day</a>, an annual event that rallies blogs around the world to post about a common cause. This year's issue up for discussion is poverty, so we wanted to take a look at the relationship between access to information and social and economic development. The right information at the right time in the hands of people has enormous power. As someone who works for Google, I see evidence of this everyday as people search and find information they need to create knowledge, grow their business, or access essential services. But that applies primarily to the rich world, where economies are built on knowledge and presume access to information. What about the poor and developing countries where people are offline more than online? How do they benefit from the power of information?<br /><br />In much of Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, rates of economic growth over the last decade have exceeded 5% every year. Despite this trend, poverty in many countries has remained constant. In Kenya, for example, the official poverty rate was 48% in 1981 (World Bank, June 2008). According to the <a href="http://www.hackenya.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&Itemid=254&gid=519">Kenya Poverty and Inequality Assessment</a> released by the World Bank this year, 17 million Kenyans or 47% of the population were unable to meet the costs of food sufficient to fulfill basic daily caloric requirements. The vast majority of these people live in rural areas and have even less access to the information that impacts their daily life. Data on water quality, education and health budgets, and agricultural prices are nearly impossible to access.<br /><br />Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year on providing basic public services like primary education, health, water, and sanitation to poor communities, poverty in much of Sub-Saharan Africa persists. Where does this money go, who gets it, and what are the results of the resources invested? That’s where we find a big black hole of information and a lack of basic accountability. How do inputs (dollars spent) turn into outputs (schools, clinics, and wells), and, more importantly, how do outputs translate into results (literate and healthy children, clean water, etc.)?<br /><br />We simply don’t know the answers to most of these basic questions. But what if we could? What if a mother could find out how much money was budgeted for her daughter's school each year and how much of it was received? What if she and other parents could report how often teachers are absent from school or whether health clinics have the medicines they are supposed to carry? What if citizens could access and report on basic information to determine value for money as tax payers?<br /><br />The work of The Social Development Network (SODNET) in Kenya is illustrative. They are developing a simple budget-tracking tool that allows citizens to track the allocation, use, and ultimate result of government funds earmarked for infrastructure projects in their districts. The tool is intended to create transparency in the use of tax revenues and answer the simple question: Are resources reaching their intended beneficiaries? Using tools like maps, they are able to overlay information that begins to tell a compelling story.<br /><br />Google.org’s role, through <a href="http://www.google.org/projects.html">our partners</a> in East Africa and India, is to support, catalyze, and widely disseminate this kind of information to public, private, and civil society stakeholders that can use it to see more clearly what’s working, what’s broken and what are potential solutions. Leveraging platforms like Google Earth and Google Maps can help organizations disseminate their content widely and let people see and understand what was once invisible. Once information is visible, widely known, and easy to understand, we are betting that governments and citizens will pay more attention to leakages in the service delivery pipeline and feel empowered to propose solutions.<br /><br />You can’t change what you can’t see. The power to know plus the power to act on what you know is the surest way to achieve positive social change from the bottom up. And when we consider the magnitude of resources invested in delivering public services each year, a 10% improvement globally would exceed the value of all foreign aid. We believe that is a bet worth making.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Cross-posted from the </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://blog.google.org/2008/10/information-poverty.html">Google.org blog</a><span style="font-style: italic;">)</span><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Aleem Walji, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.org</span>

Information poverty

Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event that rallies blogs around the world to post about a common cause. This year's issue up for discussion is poverty, so we wanted to take a look at the relations…

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Quality scores and ad auctions

There's some interest in how and why "quality scores" are used in search engine ad auctions. In this post, we will try to describe "why" we use quality scores; a later post will go into "how," including more information about bids.<br /><br />When a user types a query into a search engine, it will typically return both natural search results and advertisements. Google and other major search engines use an <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-auctions-set-ad-prices.html" id="jj5w" title="ad auction">ad auction</a> to determine which ads are shown and how much advertisers pay for them.<br /><br />In the auctions, advertisers enter bids that reflect how much they are willing to pay for a click on their ad -- this is called their maximum <a href="http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=27646" id="ncvj" title="cost per click">cost per click</a> (CPC). Ads are then ordered by the product of the bid that is entered and the estimated ad <a style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" href="http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10215&query=quality+score&topic=&type=f&%20onclick" id="u1bd" title="quality score">quality score</a>. People often ask why ad quality enters the formula -- isn't the bid per click enough? Why can't advertisers just buy their way to to the top ad position? To see why both components are important, let us look at a simple example.<br /><br />Suppose that two advertisers are bidding on the keyword "jet airplane." Joe's Jets is selling actual jet airplanes, while Moe's Models is selling models of jet airplanes. Since jets are expensive, Joe is willing to pay a lot per click. But not many people can afford to buy jets, so Joe won't get many clicks. Moe, by contrast, is willing to pay a lot less per click, but he will also get many more clicks.<br /><br />Which ad should be listed higher in the "sponsored links" section of the search results page?<br /><br />What matters in this decision is not simply an advertiser's value for a single click -– the maximum CPC that the advertiser is willing to pay -- but rather the total estimated value of showing that ad: the value per click times the number of clicks that the ad is likely to receive.<br /><br />The number of clicks that the ad is likely to receive depends on the historical <a href="http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6305" id="rjn2" title="clickthrough rate">clickthrough rate</a>, which is an important component of the ad quality score. Thus the bid per click times the quality score gives us an estimate of the total value of displaying an ad over time. Joe's ad may have a higher value for a single click, but if Moe's ad gets a lot more clicks over time, it could easily have a greater total value. In that case, Moe's ad will be shown in the more prominent position. (Click on the image to view larger.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36JYWIqj8J4QZtgJhFrLruKx6Y7B9VIBgF90NhJ50Rnmicjlrr0e4HY1qQX0gtsBKp-4XZaYra34q6LmT_eGdzrl5oQtRcp4dyssBpUJ5EUxEID-HnVAMbkLTMBYk2bIDHGskVJlb13SK/s1600-h/Picture+2.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257398262704633186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36JYWIqj8J4QZtgJhFrLruKx6Y7B9VIBgF90NhJ50Rnmicjlrr0e4HY1qQX0gtsBKp-4XZaYra34q6LmT_eGdzrl5oQtRcp4dyssBpUJ5EUxEID-HnVAMbkLTMBYk2bIDHGskVJlb13SK/s320/Picture+2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>The quality score gives search engines a way of aligning the incentives of the buyers, the sellers, and the viewers of ads. The search engine wants to sell ad impressions, but advertisers want to pay for clicks. The solution is for advertisers to bid on a cost-per-click basis, while the search engine estimates the total value of the ad over time: bid per click times the expected number of clicks.<br /><br />This is a neat way to align incentives, but it has a problem: since the advertiser only pays on a per click basis, it may as well seek as many ad impressions as it can so that as many users as possible will be exposed to the ad. Joe might well want to buy the keywords "rocket ship" even if he only has jets to sell. Why not? Joe only has to pay if someone actually clicks on the ad.<br /><br />This is where another distinct, but related quality issue arises: an ad that gets very few clicks shouldn't really be shown. It is just distracting from the viewpoint of users. The advertisers may not care much about annoying users but the search engine certainly does. Why? Because if it shows a lot of irrelevant ads, people will likely stop looking at or clicking on ads. They may develop a terrible affliction known in the trade as "ads blindness." Better ad relevance leads to a better user experience.<br /><br />So search engines often apply a "disabling rule" that inhibits ads with very low clickthrough rates for a given query from being shown. Or they might set a relatively high minimum cost per click for ads that don't attract much interest from users as a way to discourage advertisers from showing ads that annoy users and deliver few clicks. A <span style="font-style: italic;">high </span>cost per click can easily be consistent with a <span style="font-style: italic;">low</span> cost per impression when clickthrough rates are low.<br /><br />So why are quality scores important? Answer: they lead to a better auction by allowing advertisers to buy clicks, publishers to sell impressions, and users to see relevant ads.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Hal Varian, Chief Economist</span>

Quality scores and ad auctions

There's some interest in how and why "quality scores" are used in search engine ad auctions. In this post, we will try to describe "why" we use quality scores; a later post will go into "how," includ…

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Helping website owners fix broken links

Have you ever clicked on a link only to have it unveil an unfriendly "file not found" message? We know it's a bummer, so now <a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/">Webmaster Tools</a> offers site owners a way to help all of us click seamlessly through the web.<br /><br />For years webmasters have been able to view the URLs on their site that are linked from various websites but actually don't exist. Today webmasters can fix these broken links through <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/10/webmaster-tools-shows-crawl-error.html">Webmaster Tools Crawl error sources</a>. Crawl error sources displays the source URL containing the broken link to their site -- no matter where it exists on the web.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9dVxi6fu0pjWcFSYIG4JSM6eS_WoJXRNcEtpRch57hX7xWp1oAXJk27NpbTcfOLJHL-mIXzURArooPSTsiFNyjBJP3pVxBOVO481tKn9Zb6cynbzbNNqiCTMf9TIR539Mc7dHtnbHvhum/s1600-h/crawl-errors.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUP9qg_6wPtJbrzzo3IptDjHjPX3mJp1KYKGmH3IOkHRsNEMPkUvwiYLX6kB7_3MhaWxIOL_BMXNPY0Cav0NhGTQ5X-KpYgZoJGwnO4M4HPXH2RiWEkG6vEtN-3Wr6D9BjnwCknlY-taqi/s400-r/crawl-errors.png" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>What about any "file not found" URLs that haven't yet been fixed? Let's improve that, too: Webmaster Tools provides site owners with the <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/08/make-your-404-pages-more-useful.html" id="iksr" title="404 widget">"file not found" widget</a>, (aka the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40132" id="kez1" title="404">404</a> widget). It's a small snippet of code that can change the message from this unfriendly one:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvbvqStjixo5_xXYlED24ACTWoLjc4yYfNQEVemW2iKUsh0NjNNproPysWSF9GpfnATDdQmfexTn5dZCGU8uIT33L4FjRmmI7rg3-kX520aIvESaqGl1uaKBjJ6Ifz2zJbH-Ako8PbSnK/s1600-h/example-not-nice-404.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAoLK22VRpjkmTl2ahE4smDKek8T1Col6dJ74LrYBdS3WeC-cevbrYXn8d-Q2Dre6uxhzTazOuZDkxnmYpRYIscGNI6Aphq5s7vgdZExwjlVTPHIHO3fzoBOzyuoZ4upS340bb9tv26Ct/s400-r/example-not-nice-404.png" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />To this helpful message (note the handy URL suggestion, search box, and link to existing sitemap and parent directory):<br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1_xJhz7XnoiqIOz2Pk5FVpTeNuP45COgskUvdzF1OlFrOi0Clkv4kp_ZZGVKcy1t8qdFVS-rqt2WoEOCIEkzTYqYNvWNXaz_RXzcHefozU7oP0G4cnmKe_RlsqMDHMF-vbtxGpxpgfMy/s1600-h/example-nice-404.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgve3KKj-1iedH4YjB6Zs0Zu5xsbQHRQ-Y-L5tuX2zyRqMDFtHV1wOkhq1gK7CM-Y9H77HyI0Ab2g0fCLcYCQ1hFiew8p5RxNhzdKm1CFVVrXy0VJ_273zg1PQNEXKtrhlManB1AX4ZpylZ/s400-r/example-nice-404.png" /></a><br /></div><br />So, if you're a site owner, help us help you fix broken links and make your "file not found" pages more useful by <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=sitemaps&passive=true&nui=1&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fwebmasters%2Ftools%2Fdashboard&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fwebmasters%2Ftools%2Fdashboard&hl=en" id="fcar" title="signing up">signing up</a> for Webmaster Tools. Here's to an even better experience on the web!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Posted by Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead

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Helping website owners fix broken links

Have you ever clicked on a link only to have it unveil an unfriendly "file not found" message? We know it's a bummer, so now Webmaster Tools offers site owners a way to help all of us click seamlessly…

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Google Health feels accessible

<div> <div><div> <p><span style="font-style: italic;">From time to time, our own <a href="http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/raman/">T.V. Raman</a> shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful.</span><br /></p><div> <p> Keeping track of personal health records using printed paper is painful at best for most users; as someone with a visual impairment, this is a show-stopper for me. As I begin paying more attention to my own health, I've come to realize first-hand how hard it is at present to track one's health using the means that traditional health care programs provide. </p> <p> As luck would have it, Google Health arrived at around the same time that I started dealing with these issues, and focusing on the usability of Google Health from the perspective of someone who cannot see was therefore a no-brainer. Today, we are launching a version of <a href="http://www.google.com/health/accessible" target="_blank">Google Health</a> that has been augmented with several usability enhancements that aid users of screen readers and self-voicing browsers. These enhancements are implemented using <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/" target="_blank">W3C ARIA</a>, an emerging set of Web standards that make AJAX applications work smoothly with screen readers — see our related <a href="http://googlewebtoolkit.blogspot.com/2008/10/by-t.html">post on the GWT blog</a> for details. With these enhancements, I can now easily navigate Google Health to not only manage my own health records; Google Health enables me to quickly research various relevant health conditions, track medications and do a myriad health-related tasks. </p> <p> Google Health gives me a single unified web interface to manage all of my health-related information. Kudos to the Google Health and GWT teams for creating an extremely useful and usable solution!</p><p><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by T.V. Raman, Research Scientist</span></p> </div></div></div></div>

Google Health feels accessible

From time to time, our own T.V. Raman shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful. …

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Stories by Googlers

I recently had the chance to interview several long-time Googlers about the early days. To commemorate our 10th birthday, we've been <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/2001-search-odyssey.html" id="hmi4" title="revisiting old memories">revisiting our memories</a> by digging into company lore. As fun as it has been to look back, of course we've also got our sights firmly set on what lies ahead.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#vint" id="r1x5" title="Vint Cerf">Vint Cerf</a> has some predictions about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet" id="rewt" title="interplanetary Internet">interplanetary Internet</a>, while <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#kaifu" id="mf6g" title="Kai-Fu Lee">Kai-Fu Lee</a> talks about the growing ubiquity of cloud computing. Also featured are stories from early Googlers, like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVkWmYUwhH8" id="s_a6" title="Craig Silverstein">Craig Silverstein</a>'s memories of a certain <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/corporatenews/2007-07-04-google-wojcicki_N.htm" id="cqy7" title="most famous garages">famous garage</a>, and <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#marissa" id="sp1r" title="Marissa Mayer">Marissa Mayer</a>'s reflections on the spirit that has carried over from our formative years.<br /><br /><span style="color: black;">So take a few minutes to watch this blended tale of startup quirkiness and big dreams. And if you like, feel free to comment on YouTube. </span><br /><span style="color: black;"><br /></span><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QmjCtu2L_5A&hl=de&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QmjCtu2L_5A&hl=de&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Posted by Joscelin Cooper, Google Blog Team

Stories by Googlers

I recently had the chance to interview several long-time Googlers about the early days. To commemorate our 10th birthday, we've been revisiting our memories by digging into company lore. As fun as it …

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Getting around your neighborhood with Google Maps

When I moved to the Bay Area last year, everything was new to me. I didn't know Los Altos from Los Gatos, good eateries in my neighborhood, or how to get to where I wanted to go. Whether you're moving to a new area, traveling to a new place, or simply exploring a new part of town, this may sound familiar to a lot of people.<br /><br />There's a simple solution: turn to <a href="http://maps.google.com/">Google Maps </a> to <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/mpl?ie=UTF8&moduleurl=http://maps.google.com/help/maps/local_search/mapplet.html&mapclient=google&f=q&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=37.76108,-122.435589&spn=0.111961,0.175095&z=12&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=et&utm_source=en-et-na-us-gns-ls&utm_term=googleblog">find local information</a>. We've gathered a lot of useful info about local businesses so you can find everything you need in one place. You can find neighborhoods and see if they're close to downtown, parks or other places of interest. If you're moving into a new home, you can look for nearby supermarkets, hardware stores, restaurants and other places that will help you settle in. Almost every business listing includes the phone number, website, store hours, price and more. Most also have user reviews and photos.<br /><br />And it turns out I wasn't the only one who turned to Google Maps to learn more about my town. Watch this video to see how Google Maps helped Ryan, a fellow newcomer to the Bay Area:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fg-Inf3xvio&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fg-Inf3xvio&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Even if you know your hometown like the back of your hand, odds are you'll want to go somewhere new at some point. Not only can you find out the address of a specific location and get directions to it before even heading out the door, but you can virtually explore the neighborhood with Street View (available in many cities in the U.S., Japan, and Australia), or check out live traffic conditions. You can also use the "Send" feature of Google Maps to text the address to your phone or email directions to friends.<br /><br />Watch this video to see all the things you can do:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yOTO1eia7DY&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yOTO1eia7DY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />And don't forget, with <a href="http://www.google.com/mobile/default/maps/index.html">Google Maps for mobile</a>, you can access all of this great information on the go.<br /><br />Posted by Cathy Tang, Google Maps and Earth

Getting around your neighborhood with Google Maps

When I moved to the Bay Area last year, everything was new to me. I didn't know Los Altos from Los Gatos, good eateries in my neighborhood, or how to get to where I wanted to go. Whether you're moving…

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The Presidential debate: Expanding the town hall

As we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/vp-debate-candidates-questions-and.html">promised</a>, here's an update on the search patterns we observed during <a title="last night's presidential debate" href="http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2008c.html" id="q1ih">last night's presidential debate</a>. While a few lucky citizens were able to ask the candidates questions directly, millions of others used Google to find their answers.<br /><br />Similar to last Thursday, people sought to understand the meaning of several words mentioned in the debate: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define:morass" id="dqcp" title="morass">morass</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define:commodity" id="p58s" title="commodity">commodity</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define:junket" id="vrdx" title="junket">junket</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define:cynicism" id="k3gs" title="cynicism">cynicism</a>, and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define:cronyism" id="fgrb" title="cronyism">cronyism</a> to name a few. In the chart below you can see four of the most popular queries during the debate. People were quite interested in both <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=meg+whitman" id="m9.g" title="Meg Whitman">Meg Whitman</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=warren+buffett" id="dxul" title="Warren Buffett">Warren Buffett</a>, who were mentioned as potential candidates for the Secretary of Treasury, but the biggest rising query was Senator McCain's paraphrasing of Theodore Roosevelt's <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=walk+softly" id="zgyo" title="motto">motto</a>. Both candidates spoke against <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=genocide&btnG=Search" id="we:m" title="genocide">genocide</a> while discussing the role of the United States as a peacekeeper, and as we saw in the vice presidential debate, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&q=nuclear&btnG=Search" id="mgt4" title="nuclear">nuclear</a> energy and weapons were prominent topics.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtK1nLWJ9uIAz-MQ9ZcPaDl1T28UScEn8fdD9lg_KMgPjHhT9JAFp7x-QQ1Xw3xOdEznfrDn6Y-85ny7t-Gyc6_JD6nRAVyUnKE_eA0Qlvf7YngPStyMl916t33ceZonmdQG3kj0dx7Doe/s1600-h/DEBATE2_queries-in-debate-1.PNG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254702423707880866" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtK1nLWJ9uIAz-MQ9ZcPaDl1T28UScEn8fdD9lg_KMgPjHhT9JAFp7x-QQ1Xw3xOdEznfrDn6Y-85ny7t-Gyc6_JD6nRAVyUnKE_eA0Qlvf7YngPStyMl916t33ceZonmdQG3kj0dx7Doe/s320/DEBATE2_queries-in-debate-1.PNG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Queries occurred as the candidates talked, but </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">the query volume dropped after 90-minute debate ended. </span></span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Here's an additional view on queries for each of the candidates, charting queries from swing states (which had no more than a 5% gap between votes for George Bush and John Kerry in the 2004 election) and non-swing states. Swing states generated proportionally more queries for the candidates than non-swing states. Both candidates peaked at the end of the debate, with McCain showing a larger spike while Obama has a larger overall volume.<br /></div><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOP6ybsBYlcp2LGIXMhcHgOjg0He3ziKuhkoRPf2jdFFQWwP3C7NQoDG3Z5zzAIK0JK9p16kTLgO3ygpnUexFiyMRLJhvot6fb574ek2jypXOBu3ME-eHkiRTiakbQd1LeiHV0AOuZvygD/s1600-h/DEBATE2_mccain-obama-swing-in-debate-2.PNG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254703228552992354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOP6ybsBYlcp2LGIXMhcHgOjg0He3ziKuhkoRPf2jdFFQWwP3C7NQoDG3Z5zzAIK0JK9p16kTLgO3ygpnUexFiyMRLJhvot6fb574ek2jypXOBu3ME-eHkiRTiakbQd1LeiHV0AOuZvygD/s320/DEBATE2_mccain-obama-swing-in-debate-2.PNG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Queries for the presidential candidates form a higher fraction of all queries in swing states.</span></span></div><br />We also were curious how queries for Senator Biden and Governor Palin during their debate compared to queries for Senators McCain and Obama last night. As you see here, searches on the candidates during the VP debate came out on top:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVRCxq63UH9rHiF5zDYO1DlBEjuZC3LF3bSp92Lm4xfEDl2PD6orDy3tyVlrYb7eVvubHMQR2Lbe1MBkFNEBmMJmawV5QmXPx9JJEEgRKpHBkReQ3X_OJ-7NeOD6l1P4GpTGaMnl5lI-15/s1600-h/DEBATE2_pres-vp-in-debate-3.PNG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254706009590672162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVRCxq63UH9rHiF5zDYO1DlBEjuZC3LF3bSp92Lm4xfEDl2PD6orDy3tyVlrYb7eVvubHMQR2Lbe1MBkFNEBmMJmawV5QmXPx9JJEEgRKpHBkReQ3X_OJ-7NeOD6l1P4GpTGaMnl5lI-15/s320/DEBATE2_pres-vp-in-debate-3.PNG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Queries containing "Biden" and "Palin" had higher peaks during last week's debate</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >than did "McCain" and "Obama" queries last night.</span><br /></div><br />Using <a href="http://www.google.com/trends" id="of7w" title="Google Hot Trends">Google Hot Trends</a> you can see some of the more interesting things people were researching during this debate. Visit <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/trends/elections/" id="v-wi" title="Google Election Trends">Google Election Trends</a> to learn about longer-term election-related Google search queries, and read our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/vp-debate-candidates-questions-and.html" id="k48q" title="previous post">previous post</a> for the earlier VP debate queries.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Jeffrey D. Oldham, Software Engineer, and Fred Leach, Customer Labs Analyst</span></div>

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The Presidential debate: Expanding the town hall

As we promised, here's an update on the search patterns we observed during last night's presidential debate. While a few lucky citizens were able to ask the candidates questions directly, millions of …

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