The third election TV debate in Birmingham last night did not fail to disappoint. This is even inspite of much talk during the day being about Gordon Brown's lose 'bigot' comments.

It was another well fought debate this time with more focus on economic issues as well as immigration. Gordon Brown did look a bit visibly rattled given the day's events. There was a lot of political point scoring between him and David Cameron. Brown brought up a lot of economic arguments but most seemed to be avoiding impending financial doom.

David Cameron was having a bit of difficulty in answering questions on immigration and other economic issues. At one point he could not even answer a simple yes / no question on his immigration policy.

Nick Clegg was of course trying to be the 'voice of reason' between the political point scoring of the other two. However, his policy on immigration came under attack. The others said his policy of the effective legalising and integration of thousands of illegal immigrants was sending out the wrong message to others who would try to get into the UK illegally. Nick Clegg pointed out that it was an issue that was not going to disappear and had to be dealt with immediately.

What happens over the next week is anyones guess but what is certain that Google searches in the UK for 'hung parliament' have overtaken searches for 'Britney Spears'. I don't think that has happened before!

Last week Facebook unveiled it's new Open Graph API. What this means is that other websites will gain the ability to customise your web experience more easily using your data from Facebook.

For instance, if you have logged into Facebook and then went to another website which used the new Graph API you would find the website more customised and personalised to your tastes. This is the next stage in Facebook's plan is to 'socialise' the web. Facebook aims to be the first port of call when you open your browser and they also want the websites you visit afterwards to have customised content based your usage of Facebook.

Is this a good or bad thing for users?

The jury is still out on that one! Facebook has been transparent in their explanation of what is happening and their plan for a Social Graph. However, do people or even Facebook themselves or other companies involved really understand the consequences of such an action?

Facebook's rise to dominance has seen its user-base grow to over 400 million. It is now in a unique position to attempt such a bold feat as 'socialising' the web. Thanks to its continued popularity Facebook has a massive amount of user data which up till now has been used for social adverts and applications within Facebook.

I am sure other companies have been dying to harness the power of this. Not least of these is Microsoft now who want to offer their Office Software as social web apps. This means you might soon be logging into Facebook in order to use Word or Excel online!

However, there are privacy issues that go along with this. Lots of people have trusted Facebook with private and personal data and to be seen as exploiting this could be disasterous.

From a user's perspective Facebook will argue that this will enhance your experience of the web and make it more personalised. Of course we will have the chance to opt of this new development but how many people will understand the intricacies what the social graph could mean for them. We should ask ourselves is this something we really want and are we willing to be just swept along with the tide? Are we happy about other companies using our data for their research? Facebook can certainly see the benefits and will shout to the hills about it but can we?

Maybe you have all the information and customisation you need right now and do not need anything else....

As viewers of the 2nd UK election TV debate last night will know, it was well fought by all parties but Nick Clegg has continued to hold his own.

This is all amid accusation's of Nazi slurs from the Daily Mail and a predictable yet unsubstantial attack from the Sun. I woke yesterday to the sound of the #nickcleggsfault hashtag on Twitter which became trending across the world as UK tweeps responded in their own ironic way to these stories.

The TV Debate saw Nick Clegg quite literally take centre stage as they discussed hot topics like global affairs, immigration and the economy. David Cameron and Gordon Brown did seem more engaged and passionate. They are now obviously taking the Lib Dem threat seriously now

It is almost impossible to believe that just over 3 months ago Mr Clegg was relatively unknown but is now taking so much of the lime-light.

It was nice they came to good ole Brizzle for it too! I was thinking of dropping by the venue myself on the way home but there were police and baracades everywhere as you might expect.

Anyway I am looking forward to seeing how this story unfolds....

When we are not not looking to the skies for volcanic ash we are talking about a UK election which has taken a slightly different tack. Since the TV debate polls of a certain Mr Clegg of the Liberal Democrats have soured so high that even the mighty Eyjafjallajokull could not hold him back.

Nick's debate performance was certainly a force to be reckoned with as he successfully tapped into many people's growing mistrust of politics as a whole. However, there was not much expected of him when he entered the debate. He was the underdog and just had to wait for Brown and Cameron to have a predictable slanging match. It was then a matter of pointing out how annoying they were and how the Lib Dems would somehow be less annoying. That being said he did come across much more honest and transparent and this has paid dividends. Who would have thought it? Being straight-up with people is the way to win support! This is very refreshing for British politics and by no means rocket science.

Since my previous post the figures have changed slightly too. The number of Twitter followers are as follows (excuse the pun!):

Conservative - 27,397 (increase of 1458)
Liberal Democrats - 15,128 (increase of 2698)
Labour - 14,825 (increase of 777)

While the Tories are still in the lead here the Lib Dems have seen the biggest increase in their number of followers. They have also overtaken Labour since the debate.

The Google searches of each party leader's name also shed more light on what is going on.

Searches for "Nick Clegg" have skyrocketed on Google since the debate. The Tories and Labour have a very similar number of searches but both are dropping.

It is clear that Nick Clegg is the 'boy wonder' right now but for how long. The other parties are now looking to deconstruct Lib Dem policies to regain ground. This means Nick Clegg will now be in the limelight and under much more scrutiny. Whatever, happens though he has certainly made a statement and a hung parliament looks like a distinct possibility.

I think it is quite clear that social media is going to be a significant factor that shapes this UK election whether it is Labour, Conservative or the Liberal Democrats.

With the respective manifesto launch it will be a challenge to get the message out especially to first-time voters. For the major parties, social media has become essential tool to target new audiences who may have been previously disaffected or disinterested in politics.

This is the first time that social media will play a part in a UK Election and no-one knows exactly how this will play out. It is all uncharted territory. I imagine many of their strategies are based upon what happened in the US Election of 2008. The Obama campaign certainly was a solid case study but times have changed a lot since then. Both social media and people's experience of it have evolved so no-one can really predict what will happen. Businesses are now taking social media more seriously and it is an almost indispensible tool for the personal lives of many.

With that in mind here are some interesting election social media figures.....

At the time of writing the number of followers for each party on Twitter are:

Conservative - 25,939
Labour - 14,048
Liberal Democrats - 12,430

However if you look at number of YouTube views of main party videos the figures are as follows:

Labour - 'Labour Manifesto 2010: A future fair for all' posted (posted 11/04/10)- 41,226
Conservative - 'An Invitation to join the government of Britain' (posted 13/04/10)- 26,989
Liberal Democrats - David Laws: Election 2010 Manifesto Launch (posted 14/04/10) - 187

This provides interesting snap-shot of what is going on social media wise for each of the parties but by no means the big picture. What the future holds is anyone's guess. I anticipate lots of twists and turns in the coming weeks.

As I recall, the US election between Obama and McCain became a mudslinging match before the end. Remember that guy 'Joe the Plumber'? However, Obama was very successful in getting his messages out on social media and it is beyond doubt that it played big part in his election win. Also it was his positive messages like 'change' were the ones that seemed to resonate most with the voters. This is something that I am sure Mr Cameron has been somewhat influenced by in his campaign, 'vote for change'.

As with US election we are seeing a fair bit of mudslinging here in the UK regarding tax, National Insurance and other policies. It is a shame that election politics all to often is about rubbishing opposing parties policies rather than focusing on actual value they could add to the country.

UK politics has been thrown in the deep end with the social media world. It will be interesting to see what effect it has in the coming weeks as the election hits fever pitch...