Google makes its database of political ads public

As part of its ongoing efforts to improve its accountability around the role that online advertising plays in US elections, Google has made its database of political ads for US candidates public.

The search giant has prepared a resource, Ad Library, for the public which is an archive of all the US political ads that have appeared on Google and its partner properties.

On the Ad Library, you can find ads about federal candidates or current elected federal officeholders, and also see who has paid for those ads. Google says the library will be updated once a week.

Some of the search features include looking up for ads by the advertiser, candidate name, amount spent on the ads, dates the ads ran, number of impressions, or the ad type. Ads are also segregated based on the highest amount spent, most impressions, and recently launched.

The measure follows after the mega Facebook scandal was reported earlier this year where social media polls and advertising was considered one of the reasons influencing public opinion prior to the presidential elections.