India’s 15th general election is fast approaching, and Google’s determined to help anyone wanting to either participate in or monitor the event. The search giant launched the Google India Elections Centre in both English and Hindi to facilitate the spread of information.
India’s election is a rather huge deal. You know how there are only around 300 million Americans? And rather few of us showed up at the polls? Well, a post on the Official Google Blog explained, “[M]ore than 700 million eligible voters in India will over the course of four weeks have the opportunity to participate in the largest democratic event in human history . . .”
So the Google India Elections Centre has been designed to highlight the latest election-related news and quotes to help people make informed decisions. Politicians’ profiles are available, and so is general information about different electoral districts. Plus, locals can even confirm their voter registration statuses and find polling locations.
All in all, the Centre should be very useful, and expense-watching Google shareholders can take comfort in the fact that it represents a smart move. As more and more Indians get online, any goodwill that the corporation can establish should translate into a larger market share.
Yahoo created an elections site, too, for the record. It’s just rather measly in comparison to what Google unveiled.
