June 11, 2009

Who's Winning Iran's Google War?

Scott Hartley, Foreign Policy

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In recent weeks, the likely winner of Iran's looming presidential elections has gone from a foregone conclusion to anyone's best guess. The two front-running presidential candidates, current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, are vying for vital ground in a ballot too close to call. Polling in Iranian is notoriously unreliable. Yet Google Trends, stocked with data from 64 million Internet users in the Middle East -- half of whom live in Iran -- might be able to help us learn what potential Iranian voters are thinking right now. Looking at the Web tells us much about the candidates' domestic strongholds and their international support. Online behavior, from Twitter to search engines, offers clues about where supporters are...

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TAGGED: Iran

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