Polls have become the addiction of the election world and I am hooked. After last nights debate I found myself scouring the web looking to see if there was any change. A few points shift here or there but nothing yet that indicates the debates had a major impact on the election.
So with polls not showing much I went looking for something else. If you have yet to see Google Trends let me explain. It allows you see graphs of what people are searching for on Google. You can chart search terms against others, for example cat vs dog, and see the trend of searching over a period of time. You can even narrow it down to a specific country or region. The amazing thing is the sample size compared to polls that usually only ask a few hundred people.
What can Google Trends tell us about the election? Well take a look at the data that compares the 4 main national parties. Interesting to see NDP and Greens well above Liberal and Conservative. Not really sure what it indicates. Maybe people no less about the two smaller parties. The parties attract more young people then the other two, I figure more young people get there news via the internet then traditional sources. It won’t probably help predict the winners but I find it interesting.
Google Trends: “Conservative Party”, “Liberal Party”, NDP, “Green Party”.