Posted by Will Houghteling, YouTube News & Politics

From Congressman Ryan explaining his budget plan through data visualizations, to Governor Christie posting responses during Town Hall meetings, to national leaders participating in the “It Gets Better” campaign, government officials at all levels are using YouTube in interesting and innovative ways. Check out these recent examples:



To help more government officials create and distribute great videos like these, we recently launched youtube.com/government101. This site provides advice on what types of videos are most engaging to constituents, how Google Moderator can be used to solicit questions and suggestions, and more.

We’ll be showcasing some of the most creative government uses of YouTube on our CitizenTube blog and via our twitter account, @YTPolitics. Which officials do you think have been most innovative on YouTube? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News and Politics

(Cross-posted from the The Official YouTube Blog.)

As Democrats and Republicans duel over the federal budget this week in Washington, we sat down for the first-ever YouTube interview with Speaker of the House John Boehner. It’s clear that Americans are still feeling the weight of the recession -- a large majority of the questions submitted for Speaker Boehner were on the topics of jobs, the economy, and spending in Washington. The Speaker also played a YouTube speed round of, “Keep it or Cut it?” in which he reacted to your suggestions on budget cuts.

Watch the full interview here:



Speaker Boehner also addressed questions on immigration, education, and healthcare. A unique question from a man in New Jersey about whether the Speaker would ever consider a Works Progress Administration similar to the one FDR created during the Depression may surprise you.

You can see more videos from the Speaker’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/johnboehner.

Posted by Chris Talbot, Elections and Issue Advocacy Team

Editor's note: We're excited to welcome Google's Elections and Issue Advocacy Team to the Public Policy Blog. Since 2007, they've worked with political candidates, consultants and advocates to build online advertising campaigns and fully integrate digital media into political strategy. This post marks the beginning of what we hope will be a regular series from the team. Follow the Digital Playbook label for future posts.

"So many people are living their lives through technology—how can we expect their interaction with politics to be the one exception?" This question, posed by Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, is more relevant now than ever. Hundreds of elections will be conducted this year in Congress, and no campaign can afford to ignore the Web.

On Google's Elections and Issue Advocacy team, we work with political campaigns of all stripes to help them use Google's online advertising platforms to build momentum, capture voter interest, steer debate and mobilize supporters. We've worked alongside candidates and issue groups on some of the top issues of the day—from health care reform and the Republican victories in November, to Scott Brown's upset in Massachusetts.

Today's electorate is hungry for political news and is eager to voice opinions online. This requires campaigns to adopt thoughtful and integrated strategies. And so as campaigns gear up for the November midterm elections over the coming months, we'll be sharing our thoughts on how they can take advantage of opportunities to do so. Today we are highlighting our top five strategies for using digital media to win:

1. Use search advertising to build your email list and raise money.
Everyone has seen the "Sponsored Links" on Google search results. These simple text ads, called AdWords, have been compared to direct mail because of their precise targeting and cost-effectiveness—you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. At the start of the campaign and throughout, running ads in your district on the names of your candidate and opponents, and on some of the key issues, can be a great way to capture voter interest. But rather than seeking a donation right away, put the email signup form front and center. It can help you build a bigger list, with greater potential for donations and engagement in the long run.

2. "Blast" the Google Network when you need to make a big splash.
The Google Content Network is made up of over a million websites that run Google ads as a way to make money, through a program we call AdSense. These ads can be simple text links, or video and image ads ("display" ads in industry lingo), tailored to your campaign's personal brand. When you want to dramatically raise the buzz level or increase momentum for your campaign—such as when you announce, or before Election Day—you can use a technique called the Google Network blast to blanket the Internet in your district or state with ads. Just about every election since 2008 has seen one or more Google Network blasts, including in Virginia and Massachusetts, and it's a great way to grab attention at crucial moments.

3. Join social networks to further amass and interact with your list of supporters.
Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube represent massive gatherings of audiences, so they can't be ignored. Social networks allow supporters to "subscribe" or "follow" your campaign, and they're great for sharing information about your candidate and seeing that information passed on. Keep your free YouTube politician channel fresh with short videos that call out your supporters and show your candidate's human side. And don't hesitate to ask your followers to take action when needed.

4. Use data to inform your campaign decisions.
One of the most exciting aspects of campaigning online is access to real-time feedback, and many of the necessary tools are free. Google Insights for Search tracks searches for your candidate and the competition within your state. Google Analytics highlights what content on your website is catching fire—and what's not. Metrics like click-through rates in Google AdWords tell you which of your campaign messages is working best right now. For an even more data-driven campaign, use Google Website Optimizer to run controlled experiments on aspects of your site to see which variations help you, for example, gather the most donations.

5. Remember: Rapid response happens online, with or without you.
Americans go online when political news breaks (see: Joe Wilson). The chance to be a part of the conversation, shift perceptions, enlist support, and raise funds begins within minutes, and the window usually lasts less than three days. Bob McDonnell’s campaign deftly used search advertising to answer questions raised by his controversial thesis. Within hours of the story breaking, Virginians searching for "mcdonnell thesis" saw ads directing them to the campaign's official response.

We'll be posting further insights and best practices throughout the 2010 cycle, so keep an eye on this blog and on the Digital Playbook label. And let us know what you think—we'll be using your comments to help determine what we write about next.

Update: If you're a campaign or candidate looking for help on getting started with advertising on Google, don't hesitate to give us a shout. You can get started on AdWords yourself, though—all it takes is a credit card and a few moments to create your first ad.

Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News & Politics

YouTube and Google partnered with the Politico and WJLA to give Virginian voters the opportunity to submit text or video questions for the state's three Democratic gubernatorial candidates: Terry McAuliffe, Creigh Deeds, and Brian Moran. Submissions took place on a new tool called Google Moderator, which allows you not only to submit questions or ideas, but also to vote on the submissions of others, moving them up or down in importance. Thousands of Virginians took part in the interactive interview, and last night WJLA and the Politico aired the results, in which all three candidates answered the top questions on television.



As our CNN/YouTube Debates demonstrated during the 2007 presidential primary season, the web allows citizen engagement to play a prominent role in the country's most important public forums. Now with Moderator, the people's voice can be an even more powerful force in surfacing the issues that matter most to the public at large. We've used Moderator in our "Senator of the Week" series on YouTube, and President Obama employed Moderator in his "Open for Questions" initiative back in April. We look forward to taking this model to other local, national, and international elections.

We'll also be partnering with the Politco and WJLA once again this fall for another series in the Virginian general gubernatorial election, so stay tuned. And if you want to create your own debate or interview series for your state or local elections, head over to google.com/moderator to see what this new tool can do.

Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News & Politics

Virginia voters - want to know what your next governor is going to do about traffic, taxes, or schools? You have just two more days to ask -- through YouTube or Google Moderator.

Google and YouTube teamed up with the Politico and ABC 7/WJLA-TV to launch a digital interview series for Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial primary. All three candidates -- Terry McAuliffe, Creigh Deeds, and Brian Moran -- have agreed to participate.

Make sure to tune in June 3 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC 7/WJLA-TV to hear the candidates answer questions direct from voters like this:

Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News & Politics

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)

The first three months of the Obama Administration have brought the new American President unprecedented challenges. Back in November, when he was elected, everyone knew the economy and the Middle East would be critical issues for Obama to attack early on. But like every president before him, he's had to deal with the unexpected as well: who could have predicted pirates off the Somali Coast or swine flu?

As citizens and pundits from all political perspectives analyze the President's first 100 days in office today, Obama himself will address the nation tonight on the 100-day anniversary of his inauguration -- and we're going to carry a live stream of the conference from the White House YouTube channel. Be sure to tune in at 8pm EDT to watch it live.


We're also featuring commentary and analysis from top news organizations on our homepage today. Hear Karl Rove grade the President on Fox News. Get a re-cap from Al-Jazeera on what Obama has accomplished in his opening act. Watch the Washington Post talk with Americans in DC about their early impressions of the new President.

You can join in the conversation by making a video: How is the Obama Administration doing, and what advice would you give the President moving forward? Upload your thoughts to YouTube and add them as a video response to this Citizentube video, and we'll feature some of them on our News page tomorrow.

Finally, don't forget to come to youtube.com/whitehouse at 8pm EDT to watch President Obama address the nation.

Posted by Jacob Glick, Canada Policy Counsel

These are fascinating times for Canadian political junkies. Our minority Conservative Party government, re-elected just under two months ago, faces the possibility of being replaced by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP), supported by the Bloc Québécois.

Hoping to avoid such a fate (at least without an election) the Prime Minister has asked, and the Governor General has agreed, to prorogue Parliament. (Prorogation is like a parliamentary time out. Everyone goes to a corner and thinks about what they've done.)

So what are Canadians searching for in this time of upheaval?

Not surprisingly, there's been a massive increase in searches for "prorogue."


Until this month there's been almost no interest in prorogation — which is typically parliamentary esoterica rather than front page news. And not surprisingly, searches for "coalition," "coalition government," "ndp coalition," and "canadian government" have also spiked.

In fact, according to our Insights for Search tool, since last Friday, when serious rumors of a coalition coalesced, to this Tuesday, the day after the Liberals and NDP signed their coalition agreement, searches for "coalition" are up more than sevenfold:


Similarly, searches for "king-byng" (a 1926 constitutional crisis, somewhat reminiscent of the current situation) are up 100 fold since September:


How about the party leaders themselves? It appears that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is the most searched-for political leader in Canada:



However, the data also suggests we may not be as bilingual as we think. Many Canadians are misspelling the name of our Liberal leader and Harper's chief rival, Stéphane Dion, searching for "Stephen Dion" instead. Quel dommage!

Posted by Niki Fenwick and Jake Parillo, Republican Convention Team

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

After Hurricane Gustav blew through and Americans started searching for Sarah Palin, the Google and YouTube teams got down to business at the Republican Convention.

A large part of Google's work with the convention lived in the clouds. Delegates registered and stayed informed through a cloud-based system that combined SalesForce and Google technology. The new system mean simpler, faster communication with delegates when it mattered most - as the convention had to quickly inform large delegations about the latest updates on Hurricane Gustav.

Members of the media were able to search schedules, speeches, releases, bios and video put out by the Convention on their News and Media Portal powered by Google. The site put a range of Google tools to use - from Picasa to Calendar to Site Search - to give reporters fast access to information coming out of the Xcel Center.


Google hosted two blogger brunches with RedState.com. At the first, Fred Thompson gave a rousing talk the morning of his convention speech about the changes that needed to be made in Washington, conservative values and strengths of both Senator McCain and Governor Palin. At the second, Google CEO Eric Schmidt emphasized the importance of conservative bloggers and rise of new media this election cycle.

Meanwhile, the YouTube team was quite busy collecting videos throughout the week. At upload booths stationed in the Xcel Energy Center, and on a mobile camera roving through the Convention hall, nearly 500 RNC attendees took the opportunity to post their thoughts onto YouTube. Among those to upload from the Convention were actor Jon Voight, former congressman Tom Delay, and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, CNN's Jon King, and former Virginia Senator George Allen:



In addition, the GOP staff uploaded all of the major speeches from the Convention to their YouTube Channel, including both McCain and Palin's acceptance speeches, as well as behind-the-scenes footage and videos from events around the Convention center.

To celebrate the closing night of the convention, we partnered with Vanity Fair to throw a party for press, celebrities, political leaders and executives in attendance. Guests grabbed a few treats from the open candy bar and enjoyed catering from Wolfgang Puck at the Walker Art Center.

If both conventions were any indication of the general election, the Republicans and Democrats will go head to head in their use of technology and the Internet to reach voters, spread their message and bring more Americans into the election. You can stay up to date on the Google's election efforts on our US Election page.

Posted by Rick Klau and Brittany Bohnet, Google Elections Team

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

The general election season officially kicked off last week as delegates gathered in Denver for the Democratic National Convention - and Google and YouTube were there to enable and promote the use of the Internet to bring voters and candidates closer than ever before. People across the U.S. were able to keep up with the latest convention news and action using YouTube, Picasa and Election News - centralized and featured on our Conventions site.

On the ground, delegates and attendees got a taste of Google at our Google Retreat in the Big Tent, where they were able to drink refreshing smoothies, enjoy free massages and sample our newest election products, including our 2008 U.S. Elections site, the Google Maps Election Gallery and Power Readers in Politics.


Many of our Democratic guests took the time to post video nominations of Senator Barack Obama and at YouTube booths in the Google Retreat and inside the Pepsi Center. Our goal was to allow those in attendance to express their enthusiasm for the Party on video - and allow voters at home a more robust and diverse view of the proceedings in Denver than ever before. We collected over 500 such videos from delegates on hand. In addition, party and political leaders – among them Governor Mark Warner, Senator Harry Reid, Governor Bill Richardson, Governor Brian Schweitzer, Mayor Gavin Newsom, and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin – and celebrities like John Legend, Charles Barkley, and Louis Gossett Jr. took the opportunity to speak directly to the YouTube community and/or to talk about why they are nominating Obama. Their videos, and a whole lot more, including Senator Obama's acceptance speech, are available on the our 2008 Conventions YouTube channel.


Along the 16th Street Mall, visitors stepped into our Google Maps voting booths to find how to register and where to cast their ballots with our US Voter Info Guide.


CEO Eric Schmidt participated in a townhall discussion moderated by Rachel Maddow on technology's role in modern politics, from the Macaca incident to the next administration.



We even showcased Google Maps on a Jumbotron before Barack Obama's stadium speech in an effort to illustrate Americans' top concerns for 2008. See the live map on the DNC website.


And to celebrate the closing night of the convention, we partnered with Vanity Fair to throw a party for press, celebrities, political leaders and executives in attendance. Our guests challenged each other to tennis matches in the hallway of Wiis and performed their favorite hits in the Rock Band.

This week we're in St. Paul for the Republican National Convention, which of course has taken a muted tone in the face of Hurricane Gustav. Thankfully, so far the damage has been less than predicted and the convention proceedings may be able to resume. In the meantime delegates are using YouTube to upload messages of support via video, Google Earth to track Gustav's progress, and Google Maps to display evacuation sites and hurricane forecasts. Plus this week we're excited to be able to stream the convention live each night on Google News thanks to Ustream, the official streaming provider of the RNC. When we're not showing live coverage, we'll have highlights from the previous day's activities.

Live Streaming by Ustream

Posted by Arnaud Sahuguet and Ari Bezman, Product Managers

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

In this U.S. election year, what information could be more important than the candidates' own words to describe their views, actions and platforms?

Our teams have been working to develop tools to make it easier for people to track election-related information. A few months back, YouTube encouraged everyone to participate in the discussion process through the CNN/YouTube debates, Google Checkout offered an easy and fast way for individuals to make contributions to political candidates, and the Geo team created maps and layers to inform voters during elections.

Today, the Google speech team (part of Google Research) is launching the Google Elections Video Search gadget, our modest contribution to the electoral process. With the help of our speech recognition technologies, videos from YouTube's Politicians channels are automatically transcribed from speech to text and indexed. Using the gadget you can search not only the titles and descriptions of the videos, but also their spoken content. Additionally, since speech recognition tells us exactly when words are spoken in the video, you can jump right to the most relevant parts of the videos you find. Here's a look:


In addition to providing voters with election information, we also hope to find out more about how people use speech technology to search and consume videos, and to learn what works and what doesn't, to help us improve our products.

The gadget only searches videos uploaded to YouTube's Politicians channels, which include videos from Senator Obama's and Senator McCain's campaigns, as well as those from dozens of other candidates and politicians. It usually takes less than a few hours for a video to appear in the index after it has been published on YouTube. Candidates can control the videos that appear in the gadget by managing the content they upload to YouTube. While some of the transcript snippets you see may not be 100% accurate, we hope that you'll find the product useful for most purposes. Speech recognition is a difficult problem that hasn't yet been completely solved, but we're constantly working to refine our algorithms and improve the accuracy and relevance of these transcribed results.

To try it out, just visit our iGoogle gadget page. We welcome your feedback, so please feel free to leave a comment while you're there.

Posted by Bob Boorstin, Washington Director of Policy Communications

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Days after the close of the U.S. presidential primaries, political pundits, campaign strategists, journalists, technologists, and others gathered at our Washington office to discuss how the "first 21st century campaign" is changing politics as we know it. Topics ranged from the democratization of voices in the media to the power of small donors and community organizers to Lindsay Lohan's political clout.

"Obama Girl" producer Ben Relles gave us a sneak peek at his upcoming YouTube video. Lizz Winstead, co-creator of the Daily Show, gave her thoughts on TV journalism today, and why it gave rise to political comedy online and on television. Christopher Hitchens shared why he thinks everyone wants to vote in an American election. And the Internet directors from the McCain, Obama, Romney and Clinton campaigns assessed the role of technology in getting out the vote.

Visit our YouTube channel to see all of the panel discussions in their entirety (Pop Culture Politics, Running the 21st Century Campaign and Covering the 21st Century Campaign) and Citizentube for 1-on-1 interviews with panelists. And special thanks to our friends at C-SPAN for recording and broadcasting the panels.

Check out some photos from the event, which we hope contributes to the conversation about the Internet's growing influence on American democracy.

Posted by Iarla Flynn, European Policy Manager - Ireland

Voters in Ireland go to the polls on Thursday in a vote that could have a significant impact on the future of the European Union.

The Treaty of Lisbon -- which would make some significant changes to how the European Union works -- must be ratified by all 27 EU Member States before it can enter into force. Ireland is the only one of the Member States that will hold a referendum on the treaty, which takes place on 12 June.

As the referendum approaches, opinion polls seem to show we are heading for a close finish and the Yes and No campaign have ramped up their efforts. For the first time in Ireland a political contest has moved significantly online with a wide variety of websites, blogs, video resources and online advertising providing voters with a huge volume of information and opinion.

With the treaty potentially having a significant impact on economic and social development across Europe, Googlers in our European HQ in Dublin have taken an active interest in the campaign.

We recently hosted a debate at our offices where a panel of prominent speakers set out the Yes and No arguments for a large audience of Googlers. We have worked with the National Forum on Europe (an organisation that provides a forum for debate on European issues) to help them establish a presence on YouTube. The Forum is hosting a series of public debates on the treaty and their YouTube channel gives an opportunity for the views of “ordinary” people to be heard by a wider audience.

We have also partnered with Rock the Vote, an innovative grass-roots campaign which aims to increase voter turnout, particularly among young voters. On 6 June we hosted "Ask The Experts" -- a panel discussion with academics from law and political science, with an aim of providing clear and impartial information to help voters make an informed decision. And on Monday 9 June we facilitated a live web debate with questions from an audience of young voters and from universities across the country via a live web link-up.

Voters in Ireland will have their say on Thursday and people in Ireland and across Europe will watch the outcome closely.

Posted by Dorothy Chou, Google Elections Team

How is the Internet changing campaign strategy and helping to break down traditional barriers to political participation? What impact do politically-minded bloggers and YouTube users have on political journalism? And does the Internet open up an opportunity for pop culture to have an influence on politics this election season?

Political journalists, representatives from the campaigns, pop culture media gurus, and others will answer these questions and more next Wednesday, June 11, when Google's D.C. office and National Journal host a discussion on how technology is influencing campaign strategy, media coverage, and political buzz this election cycle.

EVENT DETAILS:
The first 21st century campaign
Wednesday, June 11
2:30 pm - 7:00 pm ET
Google Washington Office
1101 New York Avenue, NW, Second Floor
RSVP to [email protected] by June 9th

Hope to see you next week.

Posted by Shoaib Makani, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Earlier this year we launched Google Checkout for Political Contributions, a fast and convenient way for supporters to contribute to political campaigns. We did this in part to help individuals engage more directly in the political process. With that in mind, we're now expanding the service to include political action committees, so users can support not just candidates running for national office, but also specific causes. If you're a PAC that has registered with the Federal Election Commission, head here to learn how to get started.

Posted by Peter Greenberger, Elections and Issue Advocacy Team

The Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are behind us, and Super Tuesday is just around the corner. So far in this presidential campaign season, candidates have used the web in new and creative ways - including social networks, maps mashups, geo-targeting online ads and even sending a Twitter or two. While none of these tools can take the place of voters sizing up a candidate up close (bringing to mind the New Hampshire voter who once said she hadn't made up her mind about a candidate because "I've only met him twice"), these new technologies have helped voters get more personally engaged in the political process.

The same is true of ads. TV and radio campaign ads, with their charges and counter-charges, have long been a staple of political campaigns. And increasingly, candidates of all political stripes are using keyword ads on Google and other search engines to help reach voters who care about particular issues. Political candidates used to have to go door-to-door or stand outside supermarkets to recruit potential supporters. Now they can build a base of support more efficiently online, in part by using Google's targeted advertising tools to reach prospective voters directly.

This is a good thing for the political process. We recognize that the nature of political advertising is to inspire debate, and we are committed to fairness and freedom of expression. Last year, we created an elections team to help political campaigns use our advertising tools. And we recently published new guidelines for political ads placed on Google. A few key parts of those policies:

• Editorial Guidelines. Like all AdWords ads, political ads must follow our editorial and content policies (including our trademark policies). Google may refuse any ads or terminate ad campaigns at any time, for any reason, as noted in the advertising Terms and Conditions.

• Fairness. We permit political advertisements regardless of the political views they represent, and apply our policies equally. Just as the Net itself provides space for a thousand political opinions to bloom, Google is committed to being a neutral platform for people to advertise their political messages.
  
  
• No attacks on an individual's personal life. Stating disagreement with or campaigning against a candidate for public office, a political party, or public administration is generally permissible. However, political ads must not include accusations or attacks relating to an individual's personal life, nor can they advocate against a protected group. So, "Crime rates are up under Police Commissioner Gordon" is okay, but "Police Commissioner Gordon had an affair" is not.
  

• Donations. If you're soliciting political donations, your ad's landing page must clearly state that the donations are non-tax-deductible.
  
  
• No misleading ads. As with all AdWords advertisements, political ads should not mislead users (for example, using ad text that leads a user to believe that they're clicking on Dog Catcher Jones' ad when it's really his challenger's ad). Ad text must be clear, easy to read, and descriptive of a candidate or cause.

Political campaigns and candidates with questions about these policies are encouraged contact our elections team. In the meantime, we hope that you'll take the time to learn about the candidates, their views, and who is best prepared to lead our country.

Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager

More and more citizens are making political contributions online, and the newly launched Google Checkout for Political Contributions is an easy and fast way for candidates to collect contributions from supporters and build new online communities by enabling supporters to embed Checkout contribution buttons on their websites, blogs, and social network profiles. If you happen to be running for national office, there's more information (and a quick process to get started) here. We hope this initiative helps bring regular citizens one step closer to the political process.

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Elections Program Manager

(Cross-posted to Google LatLong)

A few days ago, we announced that Google Maps would be presenting real-time U.S. presidential nomination results for the Iowa caucuses. The map was so popular that we've decided to do it again, this time for the 2008 primary in New Hampshire.

Beginning today, users can direct their browsers to maps.google.com/nhprimary2008 and watch as live results stream in from towns across the state of New Hampshire. As the first official primary of the 2008 presidential race, these results play a large role in guiding decisions for primaries in other states. They may be a determinant of which candidates decide to stay in the race, and which decide to withdraw. It is also worth noting that from 1952, the first year the primary gained its influence, to now, almost every elected president won his party's New Hampshire primary.

If you'd like to take a 3D tour of the results, make sure to check the map tonight for a KML file presenting the results within Google Earth. Either way you view it, we hope you'll join us as we present these important decisions.

Posted by Pablo Chavez, Policy Counsel

Last July, the Democratic presidential candidates took part in the first CNN/YouTube presidential debate. Tonight it's the Republicans' turn to answer questions from individuals around the country.

Just like last time, all of the questions to the candidates will come from YouTube users, who've submitted video questions over the past few months. And with a little more than a month before the first votes are cast in the Iowa caucuses, the debate promises fireworks as each of the candidates tries to set himself apart in one of the most competitive and least settled primary races in the Republican party's history.

Nearly 5,000 questions have been submitted. Here's are a sampling of the questions:



Tune in to CNN tonight at 8pm ET/5pm PT to see which questions are posed to the candidates.

Posted by Nicklas Lundblad, European Policy Manager - Stockholm

Elections bring new and interesting uses of the Internet. A case in point is Denmark's snap election in November.

The country is very Internet-savvy and was recently found to have the highest broadband penetration in Europe. So it comes as no surprise that Danish politicians are extremely interested in finding effective ways to use the Net for their campaigns. They are buying keywords, emailing videos with political messages, and blogging. Commentators are arguing that the Net will revolutionize the elections. Some are using their blogs to craft policy reform proposals in collaboration with readers on issues such as VAT reform (a fairly technical issue).

At the same time, political analysts are complaining that political parties need to do a better job of designing websites that rank well in search engines. A study mentioned here tested 100 politically important search terms and checked if political parties came up in the first ten hits. The party that ranked best -- the Socialist People's Party -- had 18 hits in the top ten of the 100 words (that is, their website showed up somewhere in the top ten search results for 18 out of the 100 words tested). And some candidates still treat the Net as a broadcast medium, failing to invite dialogue and interaction.

By contrast, some Danish candidates are going all the way. Bent Soelberg, a candidate for Venstre (the Danish Social Liberal Party), has decided to campaign for a seat in parliament solely on the Internet. No signs, no meetings, no stickers, no printed leaflets -- just the Net. The large Danish daily Berlingske Tidende calls him the "first virtual candidate" and has written an interesting piece on his adventures in Net politics, calling him a "voter-seeking missile" Hmm. Mixed imagery, there. If he gets in he will both have made an interesting point about the importance of the Net in political campaigning and saved a lot of trees.

Any lessons here? Well, as one researcher points out, we have now moved into a new phase of online politics, at least in Scandinavia. It is no longer enough to use the Web to look cool and future-friendly. It is about being where the voters are, and realizing that the Internet is a two-way medium, opening up for citizen participation as well as engaging in passionate discussion with voters. The Net is a great tool for political communication, but perhaps even better for political conversation.

Posted by Pablo Chavez, Policy Counsel

A recent article about our treatment of a political ad placed on Google suggested that we make decisions about advertising content based on the political viewpoint of the advertiser and the ad. This is simply untrue. We do not accept or reject ads based on the political opinions expressed in the ads or the political views of the advertiser.

Let me explain the facts behind the matter and the policy behind the decision.

Recently, representatives of Senator Susan Collins' Senate re-election campaign tried to place an ad on Google that included a reference to MoveOn.org, a political group. The text of this ad was rejected by our system because of our trademark policy, not because of its political content.

Under our trademark policy, a registered trademark owner may request that its mark not be used in the text of other parties' ads. Some time ago, MoveOn.org submitted a request to Google that its trademark not be used in any ads, and as a result our advertiser support team offered instructions on how Senator Collins' campaign could edit and resubmit its ad.

Any company or organization -- regardless of political affiliation -- could do what MoveOn did and thereby prevent advertisers from running ads that include their trademarks in ad texts. And that's very important. The ad in question could have said that MoveOn.org was great, or even just so-so, and our policy would have resulted in the same outcome; Google would have asked the advertiser to drop the trademarked phrase.

Our trademark policy is considered one of the least restrictive in the industry. It strikes a balance among the interests of users, advertisers, and trademark owners by leaving it up to trademark owners to notify us of restrictions on their registered trademarks. Any entity that demonstrates to us that it owns trademark rights can request that its trademarked terms not be used in the text of Google ads.

Finally, it was claimed that "Google routinely permits the unauthorized use of [other] company names...in advocacy ads." In fact, if ads are running on Google that include trademark terms in their text, either the trademark owner has not submitted a complaint, or the advertiser has been authorized to use the trademark.

We are committed to fairness and freedom of expression, and we recognize that the nature of political advertising is to inspire debate. We look forward to engaging in this debate in an open and transparent fashion, and we encourage political candidates and campaigns to contact our elections team with any questions they may have about our policies.