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Web Journalist Blog » 2012 » August » 16

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Archive for August 16th, 2012
16 Aug

What does Google’s autocomplete say about the 2012 U.S. presidential election?


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As we know, Google’s mission “is to organize the world’s information” and one of the most influencial ways they help their users is through their suggestions via their autocomplete feature.

Autocomplete suggestions occur when you begin typing out a search. According to Google, it’s “algorithm predicts and displays search queries based on other users’ search activities and the contents of web pages indexed by Google.”

So, I was curious. What are Google users routinely searching for when it comes to the candidates for president and vice president?

Here are screen grabs displaying the current suggestions:

Google autocomplete results for Barack Obama

 

Google autocomplete results for  Mitt Romney

 

Google autocomplete results for Joe Biden

 

Google autocomplete results for Paul Ryan

Search details: These searches were done on August 16, 2012 at around 2:30PM PT. I used a “reset” Safari browser. I reset the browser before each search. I was not logged into Google. I did these searches from my office USC campus, in Los Angeles.

Guessing from the results, these suggestions change over time, reflecting the larger news of the moment.