Google to newscast live election results on YouTube

With India gearing up for counting day on 16 May, Google is preparing to introduce new features to keep visitors updated on the latest news and poll results.

It is introducing a live results map and live counting day YouTube newscasts. Voters will be able to access 'live results' at google.co.in/elections through a nation-wide view of a live count allowing everyone to see how many votes each party and candidate has secured.

The Live Results Map: will allow internet users to view both nationwide party results and constituency level results across all 543 constituencies as soon as they are declared through the day.

 Live Results Newscasts will enable internet users to watch YouTube live streams from leading news channels.

''This election the internet has been a catalyst and provided a great platform for political parties to leverage the power of social media to interact and mobilise young India to go out and vote. Google has received more than 3 million pledges by voters post our Pledge to Vote campaign and an incredible response to the 16 Hangouts by various political leaders during the election campaign. As India nears the counting day, Google will continue to provide essential news and information to the voters, ensuring that they have all the relevant information at a single destination.'' said Rajan Anandan, MD, Google India

Google launched the Elections hub google.co.in/elections in November last yea with tools such as a guide to understanding the electoral and voter-registration process, a ''Know Your Candidates'' tool with information about the candidates, election news in five languages, a daily ''Google Score'' rankings for Indian politicians, an interactive 'Pledge To Vote' map and others.

According to Google, with over 200 million internet users in the country, the internet audience in India has reached a critical scale and will play an important role in influencing the decisions of a large proportion of the urban Indian population in the upcoming elections.

It said elections-related search queries on Google have shown a considerable increase and the interest in news information related to elections and politics have started to peak.

"Leading political parties are active on most social media platforms, and users will now be able to access all the information sent out by the political parties on platforms like YouTube, Google+," it said in a statement.