The Fox News/Google Debate live tonight on YouTube: GOP candidates answer your questions

Since we announced the Fox News/Google Debate on September 1, people across the country have submitted more than 18,000 questions to the Fox News YouTube channel on topics ranging from immigration reform, to health care, to foreign aid to social security. Tonight, the Republican presidential candidates will answer those questions in the Fox News/Google Debate, which will be live-streamed on YouTube and broadcast on Fox News Channel starting at 9pm ET. We’ll also have an online pre-debate show starting at 8:30pm ET, featuring Fox News’s Shannon Bream and Chris Stirewalt, and Steve Grove, YouTube’s Head of News and Politics.

Even if you’re watching on TV, you can visit youtube.com/foxnews during the debate to vote on real-time polling questions and submit live commentary. Throughout the evening, we’ll share Google politics-related search trend information and public data that will provide context to the issues discussed. Fox News moderators will ask specific questions that were submitted by citizens through YouTube, and we’ll be looking at overall trends that emerge from the questions in aggregate. To give you an idea, here’s a look at the most popular words people used in their submissions (the bigger the word, the more often it was used).

Flex your democratic muscle and tune in to youtube.com/foxnews tonight at 8:30pm ET for a political debate that puts you in the driver’s seat of the discussion.

Posted by Ramya Raghavan, YouTube news and politics manager

Fox News/Google Debate: Digging into your questions

With three days to go before the Fox News/Google Debate, we’ve seen more than 16,000 questions from all 50 states submitted to the Fox News YouTube channel. During Thursday’s live event in Orlando, you’ll see a selection of these questions posed to the GOP candidates live on stage. As we count down to tomorrow’s midnight ET submission deadline, here’s a look at the questions you want answered by the candidates bidding for the 2012 Republican nomination.

The top issues on your minds? The Government Spending & Debt and Jobs & Economy categories rank highest in question volume—not surprising with unemployment above 9 percent and a summer spent debating the debt ceiling. Health care, which dominated political chatter for the first year of Obama’s presidency, now trails all other issues.

* NOTE: This chart excludes the “Other” category, which has received 26% of all questions, ranging from education to State’s rights.

You also want to hear from specific candidates in the GOP field. Ten percent of the total questions received referenced a specific candidate, and of those, newcomer Gov. Rick Perry leads the pack. Outweighing all of the GOP candidates in mentions? President Obama. Questioners referenced the current president over 1,000 times, nearly twice as many times as Gov. Perry, and ten times as much as the previous president, George W. Bush.

Interest in the race spans the country and the globe, with questions submitted from Indiana to Israel, South Dakota to South Korea. In the US, the cities leading question submissions are:

• Houston
• Miami
• New York
• San Diego
• Austin

It’s not too late to submit your own question, or vote on the ones you like, at www.youtube.com/foxnews. Then, on Thursday, watch the live debate unfold there at 9pm ET, and see how the candidates respond.


Will Houghteling, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Flying over planet Earth.”

Choose the questions for the GOP candidates in the FOX News/Google Debate

Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog and the Public Sector Blog.

If you’ve been watching the 2012 Republican presidential race from the sidelines, now is your chance to get involved: Google and FOX News will present a GOP primary debate in Orlando, Florida on September 22, and you can drive the conversation by submitting and voting on questions for the candidates. The Fox News/Google Debate will combine the questions you submit on YouTube with maps, facts and information to enrich and guide the discussion. You can vote thumbs up or down on the questions using Google Moderator, and many of the top-voted will be put straight to the candidates to answer. The result—an informative dialogue about the future of our country centered on the issues you care most about.

 

You can submit your questions starting today, in video or in text, at www.youtube.com/foxnews. The debate will be live streamed on YouTube as well as broadcast on the FOX News Channel at 9pm ET on Thursday, September 22. Throughout the evening, we’ll use Google’s public data and search trends on air to give greater context to the questions, and help you make a more informed decision at the polls come November 2012. We hope you’ll join us—submit your question now and let your voice be heard.

Steve Grove, Head of YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Ask the GOP Candidates.”

Reflections on September 11 - Share Your Story

The worst terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil took place ten years ago next month. The tragic events of September 11, 2001 affected the lives of millions of people, not only in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, but around the world.



Working with The New York Times, we’re marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11 with a dedicated YouTube channel, featuring special content from the New York Times, archived news broadcasts from September 2001, and your own personal stories and tributes. We hope this channel will provide an enduring record of what took place on that day.



We’re asking you to share with us:

• Your strongest memory of that day or that time period
• How 9/11 changed you, and how you believe it changed America
• What you lost — or gained -- because of 9/11

Make a video answering any of these questions and submit it to youtube.com/September11. A selection of your videos will be featured on the The New York Times website and YouTube homepage on September 11 this year.



Through telling and sharing stories, we can all hope to make sense of an event that, for many of us, was one of the defining moments of our lives. Thank you for sharing yours.



Olivia Ma, YouTube News & Politics Manager, recently watched “Portraits Redrawn: Alissa Torres”

YouTube in the Palestinian Territories

There are few areas in the world where the ubiquity of the web means more than in the Palestinian territories. In a place where conflict is a part of daily life, and land disputes prevent the kind of geographical freedom most of us take for granted, it’s platforms like YouTube that are allowing people to broadcast their ideas to the rest of the world—and to tell stories that aren’t being told by other media outlets.

A few weeks ago, as part of our efforts to broaden YouTube’s news content partnerships, I spent a week with some other Googlers in Gaza and the West Bank. I met with news organizations, bloggers, local officials, and young people—all of whom were eager to tell their stories on video. In the last month, over 16,000 videos have been uploaded to YouTube from the Palestinian territories, despite low access to 3G networks and broadband Internet. And of the more than 75,000 videos uploaded from the territories this year, 5,000+ were tagged as news and politics videos:

Sleepless in Gaza is an innovative 90-part (!) reality show on YouTube featuring six women who travel in the Palestinian territories and document their experiences. It drew such a following on YouTube that it’s now being optioned for TV series in the U.S.

• The Maan News Agency, the top online Palestinian news site, has begun uploading its video reports to YouTube to share with the world.
• Videos covering the March 15 demonstrations (which were held to demand unity between competing Palestinian political parties, Hamas and Fatah) saw many views on YouTube as conflict broke out between demonstrators and Hamas.
• The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has a YouTube channel they use to tell the stories of Gazans they work with in schools and other projects.
• The Global Citizen Corps, a group of young bloggers organized by the international NGO Mercy Corps to do community service and media training, has a robust YouTube channel with videos made by young people telling the story of Gaza through their eyes.
• The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, once the state media outlet of President Abbas’ Fatah, has recently decided to hire an independent board of directors and produce content outside the influence of the government (on a model that might end up quite like PBS).

Meeting with bloggers in Ramallah

Meeting with bloggers in Gaza

It’s in Gaza (the part of the Palestinian territories that are run by Hamas) where media freedoms have a ways to go. Journalists told us they’d been jailed for writing articles critical of Hamas, and one news organization had their office broken into and computers stolen when their pages held criticism of the government. And, after growing to 1,200 members, the Global Citizen Corps caught the attention of the government and was disbanded by the organizers for a while to protect members.

But the people of the Palestinian territories want desperately to tell a story of the region that gets beyond stereotypes. The images we see in Western media, of a place fraught with conflict and despair, doesn’t tell the real story of the territories, they told us. Some Palestinian entrepreneurs even created a new travel website, highlighting the best there is to see in the region.

It’s been said before, but it’s true: it’s the young people in the Middle East who will make change. Seventy percent of the people in Gaza are under 30. In Israel, 30 percent of the population is under 14. Several bloggers told us they had relationships with Israeli youth on the Internet; their hope is that YouTube and other platforms will help them communicate beyond the seemingly intractable political battles between their leaders and start conversations that will lead to new opportunities for peace.

Steve Grove, Head of YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Sleepless in Gaza, part 1.”

YouTube Town Hall: where your views count

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)

How would you vote if you focused purely on the ideas needed to make our country and our world a better place, rather than on the parties putting them forward? That’s a question that the new YouTube Town Hall seeks to answer.

YouTube Town Hall is an online platform for members of Congress to virtually debate and discuss the most important issues of the day. You can select an issue, watch two short videos of members of Congress expressing different perspectives on how to tackle this issue, and then support the one you agree with most. The most supported videos will be tracked on the YouTube Town Hall Leaderboard. After you watch the video, you’ll find out which party the representative comes from—and sometimes you might be surprised.

The first issues up for debate—budget, economy, energy, Afghanistan, education and healthcare—are those that were among the most popular on Google News and Google search over the past year. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask the questions you want members of Congress to answer. Every month, members of Congress will add new videos to the site answering a selection of the top-voted questions. So if you’re interested in lowering gas prices, reforming the tax system or making college more affordable, ask now!

Posted by Will Houghteling, YouTube News and Politics

Your questions, your State of the Union

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)

It’s the biggest speech of the year, and next Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET, people across the country and around the world will sit down to watch. But as President Obama delivers the 2011 State of the Union Address, which will be streamed live on YouTube along with the Republican response, you can do more than just watch the speech: you can also submit your questions for the President for an exclusive YouTube Interview that will take place just two days later, on January 27.

In fact, you can get started today. Health care. Education. Foreign policy. What would you like to ask the President about the most important issues our country faces? Go to youtube.com/askobama to submit your question now, or watch the speech on Tuesday night with your webcam or video camera nearby so that you can record and submit your question as soon as it strikes you. This year, you'll also be able to ask your question via Twitter: just include the hashtag #askobama in your tweet. And be sure to have your say in what should be asked by voting on questions submitted by others, too.



A few suggestions before submitting your questions:

1. Video questions are highly preferred (though we also accept text). Videos should be about 20 seconds long and be sure to ask the question directly.
2. Speak clearly and try to film in a place with minimal background noise. Keep the camera as still as possible.
3. Feel free to be creative (use props, charts, etc.) to help your question stand out. If you have time, find an interesting backdrop that may help reinforce your message.
4. Submit your question early. The final deadline is Wednesday January 25 at midnight ET.
   

President Obama’s responses to a selection of your top-voted questions will be streamed live from the White House on youtube.com/askobama at 2:30 p.m. ET on Thursday January 27.

This interview is the first in a series of world leader interviews coming to YouTube in 2011 as part of YouTube World View. These interviews will give people around the world the chance to engage in conversation with their elected officials and other influential people from the world of business, philanthropy, technology, media and the arts. Check back on the channel in the next few months for more opportunities to participate.

You have until Wednesday, January 25 at midnight ET to submit your question for President Obama. The YouTube community made history last year when the President answered your questions in the first ever citizen-powered interview of a United States president. If you didn’t get an opportunity to ask the President a question last year, make sure you don’t miss out this time—get your submission in early.

Remember, after the President’s address you’ll have the opportunity to watch Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) deliver the GOP response to the State of the Union as well. And within the month, we’ll be holding a similar YouTube Interview with a prominent Republican leader—more details soon.

Posted by Olivia Ma, YouTube News and Politics

More midterm election search trends as the results come in

As Election Day went on, people continued to come to Google for information and, importantly, updates on results. Starting around 8pm PT yesterday, Nov 2, and continuing throughout the night and into the morning, more than half the terms in Hot Trends were related to the election. People searched for [live election coverage] as well as news sites like [fox news] and [drudge report]. Most of the popular searches, however, were for certain races and candidates, starting mostly with races in the Eastern time zone and gradually moving west as polls closed across the country.

The hot terms included Senators-elect [marco rubio] of Florida, [dan coats] of Indiana and [rand paul] of Kentucky, three Republicans who won yesterday, as well as incumbent Democrats Sen. [blanche lincoln] of Arkansas and [russ feingold] of Wisconsin, who lost, and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who won the special Senate election to take Robert Byrd’s former Senate seat. [joe sestak], Pennsylvania’s Democrat candidate for Senate, was also popular online, as well as [joe toomey], who defeated him. People also looked for information on the [delaware senate race] which had gained national attention largely due to Republican candidate Christine O’Donnell (she lost).

Beginning around 9pm PT, we saw interest rising in the [nevada senate race], the outcome of which would determine whether Majority Leader Harry Reid would stay in office. Searches for [harry reid polls] and [nevada election results] continued to be popular even after it was announced that he had won. California’s incumbent Democrat Sen. [barbara boxer], who also won her reelection bid, was also popular search. And the still-undecided Alaska Senate race continues to drive searches, especially for the write-in candidate there, [lisa murkowski].

In the House of Representatives, we’ve seen searches spike for Rep. [nancy pelosi], who won her California district last night but lost her position as Speaker of the House when the Republicans gained the majority in the house. Her successor as Speaker, [john boehner], was also popular. And there was interest in reelected candidates from both sides of the aisle, from Democrat [barney frank] of Massachusetts to Republican [michele bachmann] of Minnesota.

Popular Governors’ races include Ohio, Florida (people are also looking for info about its winner as of this morning, [rick scott]), Texas, Illinois, Connecticut, South Carolina (which elected its first female governor last night, [nikki haley]) and Minnesota, where the winner has yet to be decided as of this moment. [emmer], the Republican candidate there, is in the top 20 list on Hot Trends as of 8am PT this morning.

California’s prop 19, which lost by an estimated 10 percentage points, continued to be popular online, as people checked for [prop 19 results] [prop 19 status] and [prop 19 poll numbers], asking [did prop 19 pass in california].

Some East Coast residents seem to have gone to bed before the results came out last night, and are catching up on the news this morning. Searches for New England newspapers [portland press herald], [hartford courant], [burlington free press] and [bangor daily news] took up a fifth of the Hot Trends list at 8am PT today, along with searches for [tallahassee democrat] and [columbus dispatch].

Finally, it wasn’t just current candidates who made news last night. Former vice presidential candidate [geraldine ferraro] was popular online; Ferraro appeared on TV last night with her fellow VP candidate Sarah Palin, and the former made some comments about female candidates for president in 2012 that had some people raising eyebrows. People were also interested in [obama trip to india], the President’s trip planned for this weekend.

That’s it for now, but we’ll keep an eye on the search trends—and on the news—and see if we have any more interesting tidbits to share.

Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor

More midterm election search trends

Election Day is finally here in the U.S., and many people are turning to the web to get information before heading out to vote. On Hot Trends at 1pm PT today, 13 of the top 20 searches were election-related, most of which had to do with figuring out where to vote. Terms like [polling place locator], [voting locations by zip code] and [where do i vote] have been popular all day, as well as state-specific searches like [nc board of elections] and [where to vote in minnesota]. Others are turning to the Internet to ask how long they have to vote, with searches like [what time do the polls close]. And earlier today, we even saw a handful of hot searches like [am i registered to vote in texas] and [voter registration]—apparently some well-meaning citizens have left one important part of the process until the last minute!

Of course, many people are also looking to make decisions about how to vote. The terms [vote smart] and [voters guide] have been popular today, indicating that people are trying to squeeze in some research before heading to the polls. Naturally, searches for various candidates, from [bill white] of Texas to [charlie baker] of Massachusetts, have increased today as well. Other searches like [massachusetts ballot questions 2010], [oklahoma state questions] and [amendment 4 florida] spiked this morning as people look for information about statewide measures. And at 1pm PT, three of the top 20 terms on Hot Trends had to do with California's proposition 19.

People are also already looking to get information about returns—searching for [exit polls 2010], [gallup poll], [voter turnout], [2010 election results] and [voting results], even though polls don’t close on the East Coast for several more hours.

Looking back over this past weekend, we saw a steady stream of political searches coming in. Search volume for California Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina spiked last Friday when news broke that she had entered the hospital for an infection, but searches for Fiorina have since dropped below those for her opponent, Sen. Barbara Boxer. And amidst growing speculation about the possibility of his becoming Speaker of the House (and back-and-forth barbs with President Obama over the weekend), searches for Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner rose steadily across the country. Finally, last weekend was the culmination of nearly two months of national interest in Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. On Saturday, October 30, more than half the terms on Hot Trends were related to the rally, and related searches like [comedy central rally] and [keep fear alive] have exploded, increasing by more than 5,000% in several cases.

We’ll be back later on with the latest on our election search trends. Until then, go find your polling place and vote!

Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor

Handy tools to help Americans vote

As Americans gear up for the midterm elections on November 2, we wanted to share a few tools that make it easier to gather voting information.

When you search on Google for [polling place] or [where to vote], you’ll see a search box to help you find your polling place, candidates, and local election office. Just type in the home address where you’re registered to vote. The search looks like this:



This feature is powered by the Google Election Center, an experimental service that lets election officials provide data directly to Google in order to create a set of search tools. Anyone with a website can also provide this same functionality by embedding the open source Election Center gadget on your site, or use the gadget code or API to build your own.



And you don’t need to be at your computer to easily find this information. If you’d rather get it on your mobile device, we’ve also created a mobile landing page: m.google.com/elections.

As for election news, you’ll find a special Google News section with stories for each state so you can easily catch up on the latest headlines.


We hope all of these tools help you get and stay informed throughout the election season.

Posted by Dan Berlin, Public Sector Engineering Manager