Sep 14 2007

World First – Google Australian Election Site

Published by at 11:56 am under Australia,Australian Election 2007,Google

Google have announced a world first – Google Australian Election 2007 (via a press release from Parker & Partners):

Staying informed about Australian politics is easy thanks to a new webpage and tools launched by Google today. For the first time Australian voters can have an intimate look at parties, candidates and election issues at one location, 24 hours a day. The site is a world-first for Google and was developed here in Australia.

Launched in Google’s Sydney offices with the help of Federal Minister Joe Hockey and Federal Labor’s environment spokesperson Peter Garrett, the site contains a number of innovative online tools, developed by Google’s Australian engineers.

Using Google technology: maps, videos and gadgets:

Google’s products are commonly used by voters and candidates in elections throughout the world. However the Australian Federal election is the first time in the world that Google has created an election site of this scope. The page contains the following features:

Google Maps and Google Earth
Including information about electorate boundaries, sitting members, candidates and margins

YouTube channels
Google Australia has also established its own election channel on YouTube, entitled “Australia Votes”, which will feature election content and be a forum for discussing Australian politics and the election.

Innovative election gadgets

  • The Australian MPs ‘On the Record’ gadget allows users to research all 226 Federal MPs’ past statements on any given political issue, by searching Hansard and their personal web pages.
  • The Google News gadget enables users to search Google News for the latest Australian political news, by Federal seat.
  • The Google Trends gadget allows users to use Google’s experimental Trends feature to compare the Australian search and news volume of political issues, parties or candidates.
  • The YouTube gadget enables users to view the parties’ latest YouTube videos from their iGoogle homepage

Google Election 2007

What do you think? A useful resource?

10 responses so far

10 Responses to “World First – Google Australian Election Site”

  1. # Neeravon 14 Sep 2007 at 2:21 pm

    Thanks for informing us about this cool resource Meg

    I’m probably going to be a Greens candidate in a South Western Sydney electorate so I can use Google Australia Election 2007 to see what the incumbent member has said in parliament

  2. # Kinon 14 Sep 2007 at 2:56 pm

    That is awesome! I love it. I’ll have to check it out when I have more time, but this rocks. I found it very difficult last election to track down policy releases etc. I hope this helps :)

  3. # SEOish » » Week in Gadgets, Widgets, and Apps - Sept 13on 14 Sep 2007 at 2:57 pm

    […] Google gets gadgety on Australian politics much in the same way that they did in the USA earlier. Meg of BlogPond did a great write up of it. […]

  4. # Megon 14 Sep 2007 at 4:37 pm

    @ Neerav – you’re welcome. Good luck :)

    @ Kin – hope you find it helpful too!

  5. # Thiruon 14 Sep 2007 at 6:27 pm

    Today, when I went to search something at Google maps, I saw the electoral map of Australia. Didn’t know they have put together a site. Great.

  6. # Johanneson 15 Sep 2007 at 9:58 pm

    Haha! this IS fantastic! I used to be an avid listener of the parliamentary and senate broadcasts and always thought the “average” Australian could be so much wiser if only they knew what was said about what and when! An example of this is that when the AUD. was floated it became subject to the whims and fancies of the GLOBAL financial marketplace and as a result there is very little that any Australian Govt. can do to affect the interest rates of money. I agonise every time the Liberal Govt. uses this SCARE-tactic about past rates under Labour. It won the liberals the last election because too many ignorant ppl. fell for it! and they only ran those adds in the last 3 days before the election, previous to that the polls also had Labour as a clear leader …………….. so ppl. watch out in that last week and be intelligent/brave rather than frightened by liberal squealings.

  7. # Johanneson 15 Sep 2007 at 10:02 pm

    Actually wanted to say that I feel quite proud at this Aust. innovation, just hope ppl. will hear about it or care enough to do the research.

  8. # Google makes it easy to track the Australian federal electionon 18 Sep 2007 at 10:18 am

    […] Meg’s post details the key features of the site, including easy ways to find out what your MP has been up […]

  9. # Australian Federal Election called for November 24 | Dipping into the Blogpondon 14 Oct 2007 at 6:26 pm

    […] Google Australian Election 2007 (my previous coverage of this) […]

  10. # dippy2on 12 Nov 2007 at 2:04 pm

    Great to see this site established. I hope that my blog will be of interest to others that visit this site, as Presently I am undertaking a project that I feel will be of great value to all Australians.
    Please take the time to have a look at http://hogwashbendviewpoint.blogspot.com/