Timed to Halloween and the presidential election, New York-based social loyalty startup CrowdTwist analyzed user data related to brand preferences for chocolate and political affiliation. Its data suggest that Democrats tend to prefer non-premium chocolate, while Republicans opt for more up-market sweets. Read more »
As election season heats up, the Pew Internet & America Life Project looks at how democrats and republicans compare in their social behavior online. The study found that two-thirds of U.S. social media users have taken one of eight political or civic actions with social media. Read more »
The debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney was the most tweeted-about event in U.S. political history — but is the kind of real-time commentary and instant analysis that Twitter provides a good thing or a bad thing for the political process or society as a whole? Read more »
UK politician Louise Mensch has got a ton of publicity for her new startup, Menshn — a Twitter-like messaging service that has pre-determined topics for people to talk about. But here’s the thing: it’s an idea that’s rotten from top to bottom. Read more »
On Super Tuesday, when 10 states hold their presidential primaries and 419 delegates are up for grabs, the election trackers at Yahoo and Fizziology have Mitt Romney as the favorite to win the day. The day might not go as well for Rick Santorum. Read more »
According to a predictive analysis experiment by a Yahoo data scientist, U.S. voters can expect to see either a Mitt Romney-Chris Christie or a Newt Gingrich-Marco Rubio ticket to face off against Obama-Biden in this year’s presidential election, if his data is accurate. Read more »
YouTube will stream one of the final pre-primary debates between the GOP’s contenders to challenge President Obama online, and the site will once again let users participate by asking the candidates questions. It’s part of a bigger plan to ramp up election coverage on the site. Read more »
Anyone who posts early results during Monday’s federal election in Canada could be fined $25,000 or sentenced to five years in prison, according to an ancient provision in the country’s Election Act — but some Twitter users have said they will defy the ban anyway. Read more »
If badges, check-ins, tweets and other social tools are your thing, here’s a roundup of some of the services and features involved in tomorrow’s elections — including a special Foursquare badge, a Facebook “get out the vote” challenge, and a location app for tracking voter interest. Read more »
In case you missed it yesterday, news hit of a serious browser exploit in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer with regards to remote code execution. And it wasn’t just the latest version of the browser used by the majority of computer users, but prior versions as well. The […] Read more »
