Google to share 'election results' with 'live counting of votes'

As India awaits a new government, Google prepares to provide fast, accurate election results to the citizens of India

With India gearing up for Counting Day on May 16th, Google is preparing to introduce new features to keep everyone updated on the latest news and poll results. New features include a live results map, live Counting Day YouTube newscasts, and much more. Voters will be able to access ‘live results’ at google.co.in/elections through a nation-wide view of a live count allowing everyone to see how many votes each party and candidate has secured.

Here’s a look at some of the features that will go live on Counting Day:

• The Live Results Map: will allow Internet users to view both nationwide party results and constituency level results across all 543 constituencies as soon as they are declared through the day.

• Live Results Newscasts will enable Internet users to watch YouTube live streams from leading news channels.

“This election the Internet has been a catalyst and provided a great platform for political parties to leverage the power of social media to interact and mobilise young India to go out and vote. Google has received more than 3 million pledges by voters post our Pledge to Vote campaign and an incredible response to the 16 Hangouts by various political leaders during the election campaign. As India nears the counting day, Google will continue to provide essential news and information to the voters, ensuring that they have all the relevant information at a single destination.” said Rajan Anandan, MD, Google India

Since Google launched the Elections hub google.co.in/elections in November of last year, millions of Indians have engaged with the tools in an effort to stay informed. Such tools have included: a guide to understanding the electoral and voter-registration process, a “Know Your Candidates” tool with information about the candidates, election news in five languages, a daily “Google Score” rankings for Indian politicians, an interactive ‘Pledge To Vote’ map and more.

With over 200 million Internet users in the country, the Internet audience in India has reached a critical scale and will play an important role in influencing the decisions of a large proportion of the urban Indian population in the upcoming elections. Elections related search queries on Google have shown a considerable increase and the interest in news information related to elections and politics have started to peak. Leading political parties are active on most social media platforms, and users will now be able to access all the information sent out by the political parties on platforms like YouTube, Google+.