As well as the recent televised debates in the run up to the British General Election, the internet has also played a huge role during the political campaign.
Social media networking sites, Twitter and Facebook in particular, have added another layer to the link between people and politicians by allowing users to discuss events as soon as they unfold.
Within hours of Gordon Brown's brush with Gillian Duffy - when Mr Brown's description of the pensioner as a 'bigoted woman' was caught on radio microphone - more than 30 Facebook groups devoted to Mrs Duffy were launched - 12 of them calling for her to be prime minister and two for her to become Labour Party leader.
On microblogging site Twitter, some of the most popular hashtags - which are used at the end of messages to highlight key trends - included #bigotgate, #bigotedwoman, and #suesfault.
The latter hashtag refers to Mr Brown's overheard remark that his conversation with Mrs Duffy had been 'Sue's' idea - understood to be Sue Nye, his long-standing aide.
Facebook fan clubs include We Love Gillian Duffy and All Hail to Gillian Duffy. The most popular group, Gillian Duffy For Prime Minister, had more than 160 members just five hours after Mr Brown's comments were made public and currently has 849 members.
And in a debate on Facebook's Democracy UK application, there were more than 800 comments, ranging from 'He's been busted! Showed what he really thinks of us!' to 'I don't believe for a second that other leaders DON'T do this, because they obviously do.'
One political blog, Tory Rascal, created a poster showing the 'two sides' of Mr Brown.
The poster is split into two, with one slogan saying 'Gord on-camera - A good family, good to meet you" and the other saying 'Gord off-camera - Whose idea was that? She's such a bigoted woman!'
It is a spoof version of a former Labour Party poster that used the slogans 'David Camera On' and 'David Camera Off' to attack Tory leader David Cameron's plans for the British National Health Service.
Social networking sites have been a source of a wealth of information on people's reaction to the television debates.
Comments on leader's arguments, discussions of party policies and declarations of support for the different parties have been flooding onto Twitter and Facebook, particularly during and immediately after each of the three debates.
Tweetminster is Twitter's facility for monitoring political data posted on the site and to connect users to politicians. According to its figures, the first debate resulted in the highest number of 'tweets'.
Figures show that the number of tweets relating to the second debate dropped. The amount rose again during the final debate although there still weren’t as many tweets then as had been for the first.
Tweetminster: First Debate
Total number of tweets: 184,396
Average frequency of tweets: 29.06 tweets per second
Total number of tweeters: 36,483
Peak: 41.05 tweets per second
Tweetminster: Second Debate
Total number of tweets: 142,795
Average frequency of tweets: 26.6 tweets per second
Total number of tweeters: 28,790
Peak: 33.18 tweets per second
Tweetminster: Third Debate
Total number of tweets: 154,342
Average frequency of tweets: 26.77 tweets per second
Total number of tweeters: 33,095
Peak: 51.7 tweets per second
Search engine Google experienced a rush of searches relating to words used by David Cameron and Nick Clegg during the first debate on ITV1, according to an article on telegraph.co.uk (16 April 2001).
Searches for definitions of the terms 'Trident' and 'Quango' significantly increased traffic on the site. Trident is the British nuclear deterrent that Nick Clegg has pledged to scrap and quango relates to the unelected bodies that Mr Cameron intends to reduce.
There were significantly more searches made for 'Nick Clegg' and 'David Cameron' than were made for 'Gordon Brown' and there was also a rise in searches for the parties' manifestoes.
Although these searches were experiencing huge increases, Google pointed out that 'Overwhelming these debate-related queries was the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano and the closure of British air space'.
On the video search site Blinkx, searches for Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg noticeably increased web traffic. Over the course of the debate, searches for the leaders were up 125% and 126%. Searches for Gordon Brown rose 83%.
According to Facebook users, Nick Clegg was the clear winner of the second televised leaders' debate. Some 48% of 86,025 voters on the website's Democracy UK application backed Mr Clegg.
This was against 27% for David Cameron and 25% for Gordon Brown.
However, compared with the surge in support for Mr Clegg after the first debate, with an extra 7,000 'fans' joining the Liberal Democrats' official Facebook group, the number of new fans after the second debate was not as great at 3,000.
The Lib Dems Facebook group now has more than 59,000 members, compared to more than 58,000 for the Conservatives and around 28,000 for Labour.
A rapidly growing group invitation to 'National Not Voting Conservative Day' on 6 May has also garnered much support with over 133,550 members.
Another support group, 'We got Rage Against the Machine to #1, we can get the Lib Dems into office', now has nearly 140,000 members.
Within minutes of the final debate beginning on 29 April, email inboxes began to fill with comments and rebuttals about remarks made by Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg.
Henry Macrory, Tory press chief, was especially prolific, sending more than 40 emails to reporters during the 90-minute debate.
On Twitter, Labour's former deputy prime minister John Prescott portrayed Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg as 'two posh boys squabbling' adding 'Gordon's the only one who looks like a PM'.
The social media networking sites aren't just a way for the public to discuss politics – the politicians too can use them to communicate with the electorate.
Gordon Brown Twitter Interview
Through the medium of Twitter, Gordon Brown recently answered questions on foreign affairs, gay rights and the Tories.
During the 15-minute interview on 22 April, the Prime Minister, who does not have a personal Twitter account, answered questions from users of the site via Tweetminster.
Asked about Mr Cameron's 'big society' idea, he wrote: 'Tories' 'Big Society' is cover for DIY services. Big society = Big cuts.'
Gay rights campaign group Stonewall asked: '(Lib Dem leader) Nick Clegg has pledged to teach homosexuality is natural to combat homophobic bullying. Would Labour do the same?'
Mr Brown replied: 'Recent schools bill would hve made PHSE (sic, Personal Social Health & Economic education) compulsory in all schools after 15, Tories opposed it. Wd have been big step fwd for #equality.'
Mr Brown was also asked what sanctions should be put to Iran over its nuclear activities, he said: 'Need UN resolution quickly and the EU should extend sanctions in finance and oil to pressure Iran to engage.'
His final question came from @humphreycushion, who asked: 'My 13 year old son wants to know whether Gordon is in the Love or Hate Party? #marmite'
Mr Brown replied: 'Sarah loves marmite I love marmalade. #marmite'
In his final tweet Mr Brown wrote: 'Thanks for all questions and to @tweetminster for hosting me. #gameon'
Twitter was also buzzing with reaction to an alleged 'smear' campaign by several newspapers, which today put Mr Clegg under intense scrutiny.
The ironic hashtag #nickcleggsfault was used by thousands of people to hit back at the media.
Sally Bercow, the wife of John Bercow (Speaker of the House of Commons) wrote: 'There's a helluva queue in Starbucks this morning #nickcleggsfault.'
And in a reference to the Icelandic volcano that led to the recent flight ban, @urbancyclist wrote: 'Nick Clegg was seen two weeks ago poking Eyjafjallajokull with a stick #nickcleggsfault.'
The question and answer session was Mr Brown's first ever Twitter interview. Mr Clegg answered questions on the site last July.
Mr Cameron had been 'asked many times' to do the same, according to Labour's Kerry McCarthy, the Government's official Twitter tsar.
She tweeted: 'Great to see Gordon do his twitterview for @tweetminster live from Bristol East. When will Cameron say yes? Or is he fit to twit?'
