Live Election Map Watch

I've been following the Google Election Map, the BBC election map and the CNN election map all evening. At a few minutes past 11pm (EST) the BBC election map painted Washington and California blue, which means that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. The Google Election Map and the CNN map did the same seconds later.

The BBC election map was ahead of the curve all evening. The American media were clearly burnt by their experiences in 2004 when they called many results early and got them wrong. The BBC did not seem as worried as the American media in calling states early (and potentially making mistakes).

The BBC, CNN and Google election maps all did a brilliant job in keeping a live record of the US election. However, I think I'm going to call it for the Google Election Map. Although the BBC map was mostly first with the results, the Google Map allowed users to embed it in their own websites (look - there it is above). Therefore I would argue that the Google Election Map won it by a long tail.

Tomorrow, I am sure, we will be inundated with Google Maps mash-ups that break down today's results in a thousand different ways. Tonight is for thanking Barack Obama and John McCain for reigniting democracy.

I'm now going to bed but if you have any energy left go and check out the Google Election Gallery.

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