I just wanted to note down something Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, recently said at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

"Trust me - if you gave people at Google free rein to produce TV you'd end up with a lot of bad sci-fi,"

I lol'ed a bit at the amount of truth in that statement.

I took a snapshot of search trends on all four Singapore Presidential Election candidates using Google Search Trends and Yahoo! Clues Trend Analysis on Saturday, 27 August, 2011 at roughly 8pm, when the polling stations close.

Google Search Trends
Historically, Google search tends to be used by the more technologically savvy web users such as young working professionals.

Google only reported search trends up to 25 August. Dr. Tony Tan leads the pack with the most number of searches, closely followed by Dr. Tan Cheng Bock. Tan Kin Lian's sudden peak on 23 August seems to be an outlier, possibly due to some controversial report on him, and the number of searchers seem to return to their original level roughly two days later. Tan Jee Say's searchers have consistently been lower than the other three presidential candidates thru-out the campaign period.

My analysis is that young, working professional voters were originally inclined towards Dr. Tony Tan but Dr. Tan Cheng Bock's electoral campaign strategy has managed to wrest the momentum away from Dr. Tony Tan. 

Yahoo! Clues Trends Analysis
Users of Yahoo! tend to come from a wider range of the population so it tends to reflect the search trend of the general Singapore population. Yahoo's search report is more detailed and includes gender and age breakdown.

Yahoo! searchers present a totally different perspective with Tan Jee Say getting the largest percentage of searches, followed by Dr. Tan Cheng Bock. Tan Kin Lian comes in third. Dr. Tony Tan came in last with the fewest number of searches, presumably because the Singapore population is familiar with Dr. Tony Tan as he has been a Member of Parliament for many years.

What I find noteworthy are the twin peaks on 11 August and 19 August. All four presidential candidates were awarded certificate of eligibility on 11 August, resulting in a rush by the population to find out more about Tan Jee Say, Dr. Tan Cheng Bock and Tan Kin Lian.

The first speeches by all four presidential candidates was broadcast on the night of 18 August. The very next day, all searches on four candidates peaked with Tan Jee Say yet again getting the most searches, closely followed by Dr. Tan Cheng Bock and Tan Kin Lian. Once again Dr. Tony Ton received the least number of searches.