On Google pitch, young voters are not bowled over by celebrities

Considering that more than 40 per cent voters in India are youth, Google India has launched an official community, The Voice of Youth, on its social networking site Orkut. The community moderators have put up polls on various election-related topics, which are open till April 14. The web portal is www.orkut.co.in/loksabha2009.

The real time poll results have already started showing interesting results. For instance, nearly 75 per cent of voters said yes to “Would you like to canvas for a party of your choice?”. Another question, “Are you influenced to vote when a celebrity joins a political party?”, has 74 per cent voters saying no.

Vihari Komaragiri, product manager, Google India, said, “this is for the first time Google has created an official community for a social event. The idea came up among a few Orkut team members and it was then we decided to launch an official platform where youth can voice their opinion.” He said this is also the first time when the community site is being treated as an independent portal where non-Orkut members can also cast their vote.