politics

Facebook may be wielding the power of the polls with peer pressure. According to a new study, when users see that their friends have voted, they're far more likely to go vote themselves.

Titled "A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization," the study examines the influence of Facebook friends on voting behaviors. It looks specifically at the U.S. elections in 2010 and concludes that the social network's "get out the vote" message brought more than 300,000 more voters to the polls.

"Our study suggests that social influence may be … Read more

The latest comments on Big Apple Pizza's Yelp page aren't about anchovies.

After President Obama stopped by and received a bear hug from owner Scott Van Nuzer, comments started being posted on the pizza shop's page on Yelp, a site for posting reviews of local businesses. With two 5-star reviews dating back to 2009, Big Apple Pizza's overall rating took a dive with new comments - from people living much further than the Fort Pierce, Fla., pizzeria will likely deliver - awarding 1 out of 5 stars.

… Read more

A recent survey on Facebook is leaving a lot of users scratching their head.

The survey, which invited only a few users to participate, appears at the beginning to be a typical customer satisfaction survey but then devolves into a bizarre news quiz.

The survey begins by asking how satisfied recipients are with their Facebook experience and the news feed, supplying five possible responses from very dissatisfied to very satisfied. The social network then wants to know how often you get your news from various sources, such as Facebook's news feed, Twitter, news Web sites, and newspapers. It also … Read more

The screen grab above is from The Crowdwire, a new, noncommercial project that among other things looks at the success of the political campaigns in regard to branding and social media.

As you can see, in this snapshot for the period July 16 to August 15 the brand of President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, figure in the top three most-discussed brands on social media (I was surprised to see that the Batman movie came in only at fourth place considering the fact that the Colorado shootings took place July 20).

The Crowdwire (@TheCrowdwire on Twitter), a … Read more

As election season heats up, politics are increasingly taking center stage in Facebook discussions -- and now that's going to step up even another notch. The social network and CNN launched their "I'm Voting" app today.

Announced last month, the app lets users commit to voting while endorsing specific candidates and issues. The commitments are displayed on users' timelines, news feeds, and real-time tickers. This way (for better or for worse) users can show all of their friends who they are voting for and how they feel about certain issues -- like immigration, health care, and … Read more

Google's efforts to gain influence in Washington is sending money to some politicians who may make Internet civil liberty advocates cringe.

According to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission, Google's PAC (Google Inc. NetPAC), as of July 2012, the search giant has made almost half a million dollars in campaign contributions.

That's no chump change compared to other tech powerhouses. Microsoft's PAC doled out $24,000 in July, bringing its total campaign contributions for the year to $565,500. Yahoo's total campaign contributions for the year amount to $36,500. Oracle gave $174,… Read more

Every time there's supposedly big news on the campaign trail, I fear acid reflux.

What accusations will some fine politician toss at another fine politician in order to sway my stomach -- and thereby my vote?

What ridiculous, illegitimate assertion will be barked by one politician that will spur an opponent to retweet, regurgitate, or resign?

I had always thought politics a grubby business, one in which the energy behind the lie is even more important than the lie itself.

And yet, some esteemed figures believe that the level of political discourse has been brought even lower by technology.… Read more

Downing Street, the office and home of the British Prime Minister, has cleared the way for Google to map the famous road at street level. Users of Google Maps can now see the powerhouse of British politics on Street View.

With the Olympics in full swing and as an already packed London continues to swell, the Downing Street gates will remain tightly shut, barring anyone from entering the historic roadway. But anyone with a mobile phone, laptop, tablet or otherwise can check out David Cameron's front door. You don't even need a security pass; you can virtually just … Read more

The majority of Americans are very much against the practice of tailored political ads, a specific market that is seeing tremendous growth as we get closer and closer to the 2012 election. In fact, most Americans dislike tailored political advertising so much they claim it decreases their chance of voting for a candidate they already support.

The new results come from a 20-minute questionnaire conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. The full findings based on the 1,503 respondents surveyed are in the 28-page document titled "Americans Roundly Reject … Read more