
Story by
Anna Heim
Anna Heim is the founder of MonoLibre and a freelance writer for various tech and startup publications. She is a polyglot French news junkie Anna Heim is the founder of MonoLibre and a freelance writer for various tech and startup publications. She is a polyglot French news junkie with a love for technology.
General elections began this morning in Argentina when 28 million registered voters were able to elect a new President and Vice-President, 24 senators, 130 deputies to the lower house of Parliament as well as nine provincial governors. Facing such an important event, Google decided to participate and developed a series of initiatives around the election.
The most visible of these initiatives targeted at Google users in Argentina is today’s doodle on google.com.ar:
The page also displays the latest trends and real-time news around the seven Presidential candidates. Users interested in researching further can also find out more about local candidates thanks to a partnership between Google and the project YoQuieroSaber, whose ambition is “to enhance the democratic quality of Argentina.” This election is the seventh since Argentina has returned to democracy in 1983.
Google’s dedicated page also leads to a dedicated channel on its video platform, YouTube, which hosts interviews and other news reports on the election, in partnership with the Spanish press agency EFE.
It’s not the first time Google has created websites dedicated to an election (see our previous post ‘Google rolls out new mobile site for US midterm elections‘) though it’s a premiere in Argentina. It also seems to come at a good time, as participation has been a concern in an election where analysts expect the President Cristina Kirchner to be reelected.
What do you think of Google’s initiatives around elections?