Google Rocked Election Results

I'll admit - I didn't look at CNN, Fox, any of the 19 NBC affilates, or anyplace else but Google Elections for my Iowa Caucus results.  They did a bang up job.  Election night Twitter was alive with others following the Google results.  It was exceedingly helpful, and easy to use.  No longer were election returns limited to just the select insiders.  This time caucus results were available for all to see and use.  Upside - mad transparency.  Downside - some silly amateur punditry.  Overall - very cool, helpful, and gigantic leap forward.  Read more about it after the jump.

Google’s experiment showed how an innovative technology company can push in on the turf of a venerable news organization that prides itself on getting it first and getting it right.

The AP, normally at the front of the line, found itself behind Google – and behind WNYC, which paired its data with a news application built by one person over Christmas vacation.

People noticed. “Google was ahead, definitely ahead,” said Aron Pilhofer, whose news applications team at The New York Times used AP results for its election news app.

The Guardian’s U.S. newsroom was watching various outlets closely that night.

“It’s fairly common knowledge that the only place to get primary/election data is from AP, and through various sources we knew that the NYTimes, MSNBC and HuffPo were all using AP feeds,” Gabriel Dance, Guardian U.S. interactive editor, told me by email. But early in the night, Open Editor Amanda Michel noticed that the map on the Iowa GOP site was the same as the one on Google’s elections site.

I'm kind of excited about what they'll do next.  See the full story.