The Associated Press, in partnership with Google and Twitter, has released election trends data based on candidate and election-related searches and tweets.
The AP Election Buzz tool, which uses Google Trends, tracks Google “search interest in political terms.” This feature is part of the Google Political Index that was created by a nonpartisan goup of Google’s data analyst. “It measures search interest in a weighted comprehensive list of topics associated with the 2016 election, including presidential candidates and political figures, policy issues, and current events.”
People who use Google can view search volume going all the way back to August 2015, in the form of a chart or a map, and filter the data by past month, week or 24 hours.
Not only does AP get election data from Google Trends, they also track Twitter conversations around the 2016 election. They analyze tweets that contain candidate names, campaign hashtags and other terms that are election related.
If you’re curious about AP’s election search trends tool, it can be found on their website: AP Election Buzz.