I am fascinated by Yahoo’s Candidate Mashup as it allows you to do something never before possible. For the first time you can click on the candidates you are interested in and the issues you are interested in and see the views of each candidate. This is a use of technology which is truly fantastic.

 

The idea while great is in its infancy. Why? Well candidates still have to somehow be able to update their positions on topics. It is not clear if Yahoo! News does this now or not.

 

So in the future I would expect topical XML feeds from various candidates. These views would be funneled to Yahoo! News and other sites who can compete for viewers on the best interface, best community development, etc.

 

I feel this is the first step in a coming genre of video mashups which will likely be very popular in politics and financial news. It will be very interesting to see how this idea progresses.