Google Expanding Candidate Cards, Wants You to Vote

Source: Google Expanding Candidate Cards, Will Also Offer Primary Voting Reminders

Google is doing something very interesting with the presidential candidates this year with their new Candidate Cards showing in search.

Google does not consider them to be “candidate listing ads,” but instead views the information as a way for the public to get accurate information during an election race. For example, these cards can be very helpful to voters and journalists who want the ability to get instant fact-checking ability during a live debate.

Google explains it this way:

“Tracking what’s happening in the primaries and how each candidate is doing state-by-state can be hard. So now when you search for “primary results” or “resultados de la elección primaria” you’ll not only see the primary election schedule, but you’ll also see live results and an evolving tally of how many delegates each Republican and Democratic nominee has received. This feature works in English and Spanish.”

Voting Matters to Google

To drive information to action, Google is putting an emphasis on reminding the public of when they can vote. Cards will let people know the dates of their voting primaries within their state. The cards will also help searchers find their nearest polling places as well.

While it will be hard to quantify the impact these cards will have on the presidential election, I’m sure Google will have some fancy statistics once it’s over. In the meantime, enjoy all of the election hoopla!