Experience US elections - via the web

American news websites like USA Today, here, offer plenty of interactive content in their coverage of the mid-term elections.

The internet offers an exciting variety of new ways to view trends in the current mid-term elections in the US.

The

New York Times

, for example, has a couple of nifty features.

Headed "Readers' Thoughts",

this graphic

shows the most popular answers to the question, "What one word describes your current state of mind?"

You can view the uppermost descriptor of everyone; Republicans; or Democrats.

"Vexed" and "anxious" were leading the way, in the build-up to the results.

Democrats were "frustrated", however, whilst the Republican sentiment was "hopeful".

Also on the

New York Times is an Interactive Graphic: Tracking the Election on Twitter.

A cloud highlights the number of Twitter posts related to candidates running for governor or the Senate.

The candidates, presented by geographical area, are shown as blue circles if Republican, red circles if Democrat.

It covers a period since October 23, and is reminiscent of the interactive maps created to illustrate the aftershocks in the days following the Christchurch earthquake.

The Net Usage Index for News on