Twitter, Google, Yahoo Tailor Web Services for Presidential Election

As the United States hurtles toward its Election Day on Nov. 4, Google, Yahoo and Twitter are among the Internet companies providing Web services that bring Democrats and Republicans together in a public forum to tweet or make it easier for the individuals from both parties to find election information. eWEEK composes a slide show of what the three vendors have done in this area.

Tweet about your candidates, or at least joke about Tina Fey’s impressions of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. Popular microblogging service Twitter has created an election group site that is being updated with frightening rapidity.

Google’s Voter Info Map puts registration, absentee and early voting information in one place.

You can take Google’s Voter Info Map with you, accessing voter info from your mobile phone.

What was Googled during the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin? Using Google Hot Trends, we can see people Googled certain terms. Gov. Palin called Sen. McCain a maverick several times, sending many viewers to Google to find out what a maverick is.

Searches for Sen. Biden soared from the previous week. Palin’s volume outpaced Biden’s, according to Google Hot Trends.

Yahoo creates a vote badge in the top right-hand corner of Yahoo Search. One click brings users directly to the Yahoo News election page.

To get quick updates on candidates, election news and polling numbers, try new election shortcuts on Yahoo Search, which cull information directly from the Yahoo News elections hub as well as the political dashboard. This “Obama” shortcut provides poll results, recent headlines and relevant discussions, as well as a brief bio, photos and videos.

Or, if you’re just looking for a snapshot of the race, search “presidential election” for results on Obama and McCain news and national poll averages. You can also learn how to register to vote by following the link in the shortcut.

To see it all, try the political dashboard in Yahoo News.