Searching across the campaign trail

Here at Google we’ve seen a rise in searches about candidates and key political issues throughout the 2010 U.S. election cycle. We used Insights for Search and Google Trends to gather top candidate searches and a few regional highlights.

Top 10 most searched for candidates in Google News in the U.S. in October 2010

1. Meg Whitman
2. Harry Reid
3. Rand Paul
4. Jerry Brown
5. Sharron Angle
6. Carl Paladino
7. Linda McMahon
8. Nancy Pelosi
9. Patty Murray
10. Charlie Crist

Here’s what the top five look like for the last 30 days:

To see what some of the most popular search terms and videos have been across the country, we ran the numbers for a few major markets and political hotspots:

Los Angeles

• While Meg Whitman dominated searches during the week of Oct. 18, searches for Jerry Brown increased on Tuesday, Oct. 26, and have since been neck-and-neck with searches for Whitman. (Source)
• In the Los Angeles area, news searches for Whitman and Brown are also neck-and-neck. (Source)
• Searches for Carly Fiorina are at their highest point of the year, just above the point where they were around the time of the June primary. (Source)
• Google News searches for Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina have been rising since Oct. 20. (Search)
• Searches for “health care” in the Los Angeles area peaked on Oct. 26. Angelenos are searching for information about immigration and health care more than information about the economy. (Source)
• The most-viewed YouTube video in the race for U.S. Senate is Carly Fiorina’s Hot Air: The Movie.
• The most-viewed YouTube video in the gubernatorial race is Jerry Brown’s Whitman: Why I Came to California.

San Francisco Bay Area

• In the last week, more San Franciscans have been searching for information about Jerry Brown than Meg Whitman. Search traffic for both began rising significantly on Oct. 25, just over a week before the election. (Source)
• Meg Whitman leads the Bay Area (and the nation!) for the most searches in Google News. (Source)
• Searches for Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina are at their highest point of the entire year, aside from the time period around the June primary. (Source)
• In the Bay Area, “health care” became a more popular search term than “economy” last week.
• The most-viewed YouTube video in race for the U.S. Senate is Carly Fiorina’s Hot Air: The Movie.
• The most-viewed YouTube video in the California gubernatorial race is Jerry Brown’s Whitman: Why I Came to California.

Chicago

• In the gubernatorial race, Bill Brady is leading searches in the Chicago area. Searches for both Brady and Pat Quinn began rising significantly at the beginning of October. Searches for Brady are at their highest point of the year. (Source)
• In the Senate race, October searches for Mark Kirk peaked on Oct. 26, and searches for Alexi Giannoulias peaked on Oct. 20. (Source)
• Over the past month, Chicagoans have been searching for information about issues such as health care, immigration, and the economy more often than either gubernatorial candidate. (Source)
• Searches for “absentee ballot” began rising in late September as Chicagoans searched for information about Illinois’ new absentee voting law. Searches for this term peaked on Oct. 26. (Source)

Miami

• Searches for gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink have hit their highest point since the August 24 primary. Searches for Rick Scott are at their second-highest point of the year since the primary. (Source)
• In Florida’s Senate race, searches for Marco Rubio are at their highest point of the year. Searches for Charlie Crist and Kendrick Meek are at their second-highest points of the year. (Source)
• In October, searches for information about immigration peaked on Oct. 26, but searches for information about health care started falling the previous day. (Source)
• This month, Miami-area searches for “tea party” peaked on Oct. 21. (Source)
• The most-viewed YouTube video in the U.S. Senate race is Marco Rubio’s A Generational Choice.
• The most-viewed YouTube video in Florida’s gubernatorial race is Rick Scott’s Obama’s Mosque.

New York

• In the gubernatorial race, searches for Andrew Cuomo are currently at their highest point of the year. Searches for Carl Paladino reached their highest point of the year on Oct. 11. (Source)
• Searches for U.S. Senate candidates Chuck Schumer and Jay Townsend are steadily on the rise. Throughout much of the campaign, New Yorkers have been more likely to search for information about Chuck Schumer, but last week, Townsend surpassed Schumer in search popularity. (Source)
• New Yorkers continue to search for more information about Senate special election candidate Kirsten Gillibrand than her opponent Joe DioGuardio. Searches for Gillibrand peaked on Oct. 20 and 21. (Source)
• Over the past three months, New Yorkers have consistently searched for more information about immigration and health care than information about the economy.
• Searches for “tea party” are nearly at their highest point for the month of October. (Source)

You can also read about more election-related search and video stats on the Official Google Blog and YouTube’s CitizenTube blog.

And don’t forget to vote tomorrow!

Posted by Ginny Hunt, Elections & Public Sector Team