Someone got to my blog by googling “Who will win in the 2010 presidential elections?” You know who you are. If you are reading this, rejoice — for this, my friend, is your lucky day! I shall reveal to you something so “classified” that after reading this, I’m afraid I’d have to kill you. I’m kidding, of course. :)

It’s both amusing and interesting when people look for answers over the internet by typing-in very specific questions in Google. Of course, for a computer fan girl like me, I’m amused enough to see people use articles such as “a”, “the” and punctuation marks such as “?” included in the search box. Programmers know that those are irrelevant.

As far as I know, algorithms of search engines ignore these and operate mainly on “words” or “phrases” (otherwise known as “keyword”) matching. Well of course, there’s PR and other authority factors to consider, but all else being equal, keyword matching becomes the determining factor when it comes to which search results go on the search pages and the order at which they appear (Confused? Go skim-read through my SEO post here to get an idea about this tech talk).

But that’s not the real funny part.

The funny part is that people are actually searching the net for answers about who the possible winner in the presidential elections might be. I’d like to think that whoever searched for it is actually a fake fortune teller, but nah, you and I know better.

It’s all about mind conditioning. That’s the reason surveys exist — to condition the mind. Of course, they (organizations who conduct surveys) would argue that they exist to monitor the “social weather”. But if that’s the sole purpose of their existence, why then must people pay to be included in the survey or to have the “right of first publication”? Right you are! Because it’s business!

What then is their business? To “survey the social weather”? Nope — to influence public perception — to sway public thinking!

Why?

Because people are naturally followers of norm, of culture, of generic behavior. Because people are inclined to “go with the flow”. Because people, by nature, wouldn’t want to risk upholding their principles for fear of ridicule. To go against the tide of society would mean being “unconventional”, “radical” or to some extent of perception — “silly”.

Why is this person googling “Who will win in the presidential elections in 2010?”. Because this person, and over 50% of the total voting population, regardless of what they’ve heard and seen, and regardless of their personal conviction, are still most likely to ultimately just “go with the flow”.

Do you really think people care to know what the survey results are just so they’d be updated on how their preferred candidate is doing? Of course not! They want to know who’s leading and who’s trailing because they want to belong to the winning group! They want to know the prevailing public sentiment and go with it! You don’t believe me? Remember Harold Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? The “need to belong” is part of that hierarchy. And who wants to belong to a group of survey-cellar-dwelling-losers?

It is a sad, disappointing fact but I think we’re all grown-ups here, hence I would assume we all understand that choosing a candidate is influenced by so many factors that regardless of what surveys say, it remains a complex process in the electorate’s mind — so complex and unpredictable that no survey can completely capture through sampling. It changes over time. Sometimes, that change becomes so great.

That’s why exit polls are a better gauge of possible results instead of pre-elections surveys.

Now, do you really think I wrote this to tell you who I think will win in the upcoming 2010 presidential elections? Sorry to disappoint you. I will not. I’d love to, but I will not. Because frankly, your guess is as good as mine.

Okay, maybe not. :)

But don’t count on it anyway. I still won’t tell you now. Everyone else is giving their fearless forecasts of who will win in the 2010 elections. Giving you mine would mean “going with the flow”. So go ahead, sneer. I don’t mind being called “silly”. I take pride in it. And you know what? You should too!

So stop going with the flow. It’s boring. It’s unimaginative. It’s irresponsible. Swedish pop duo “Roxette” says it perfectly: “Listen to your heart.” Don’t let the voices of the crowd drown your own. Don’t even let this blog influence you. Just because I get to write and you don’t doesn’t mean my thoughts are better than yours.

So stop googling “Who will win in the 2010 presidential elections?”. Start listening to your heart. It has more answers than what Google has to offer.

What is it telling you? Share it. I’d be happy to know. And I promise, I won’t call you “silly”. :)