|
|
|
While ITV fell over itself to remind viewers that the live debate between the main political leaders was an "historic TV first", the internet proved it is a key adjunct to the election debate.
Today Google released figures for several key word terms that it saw spike during the debate, notably Quango (Quasi autonomous non-government organisation), Trident (the government's much debated new nuclear deterrent program) and Jobs Tax.
In a blog posting, Google software engineer Jeffrey Oldham said that the search firm had seen many viewers use the internet to also look up real-time information on how the debate was being scored online.
"Many Brits sought to watch the debate, searching for ITV election debate and live political debate, while others sought real-time polling information with queries such as debate polls, leaders debate poll and who is winning the debate," he said.
Twitter also saw a mass of traffic during the debate, with the BBC reporting that messages were being posted at a rate of 22.5 per second, according to election web site Tweetminster.
Facebook also saw a massive demand on its Rate the Debate app, so much so it crashed at one stage, as users rushed to tell their friends and random acquaintances what they thought of the action unfurling in front of them.
However, with 10 million people tuning in to watch the election debate on the TV it casts a small measure of doubt over the notion this would be the first 'internet election'. Perhaps no bad thing though, considering politicians' track record when it comes to IT.
16 Apr 2010
