Front row for First in the Nation

Posted by Ginny Hunt, Google Election Program

Tonight when Iowans gather in living rooms and high school gyms to take the first step in selecting our U.S. Presidential nominees, Google and YouTube will give you a front row seat.

We're working together with local Iowan media organizations and political parties to bring you real time results and citizen-generated videos from the caucuses –- an up-close and personal perspective in the process to elect the next President.

Iowa caucus goers and out-of-state political pundits alike can upload videos of the Iowa Caucus to YouTube, giving you a direct view into this vibrant political scene. These Iowa Caucus videos can be found at the Des Moines Register's YouTube Channel and span a variety of perspectives from predictions and personal reflections to interviews and candidate analysis.

And starting tonight (approx. 8-10 pm CST), you can use Google Maps to view real-time caucus results by county. The political parties in Iowa will be working with us to publish these results to our Iowa Caucus map as soon as they come in, so that everyone can access results online when Iowans finish caucusing.

To stay on top of campaign coverage, check out the Google News Election section, where you can also find the Election 2008 Google gadget for a one-stop shop to follow the campaign trail.