Google wants to hold elections via its own online voting system.

In a patent filed to American authorities, the Silicon Valley tech-firm indicated its new in-built voting feature could be used for “polls, elections, contests, marketing and the like”.

While the overall example Google used in the patent application would be for an entertainment poll, experts have said it is not unforeseeable that we could use a voting system the company developed to vote in elections.

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Google sought to build a “voting user interface” and could only become available to people “provided a user who has been authenticated” was logging on.

The patent‘s title was: “Social voting-based campaigns in search”, and was approved and awarded to Google earlier this week.

It also opened the possibility of another revenue stream for Google, that would be to pay companies to do social research for them in the guise of light-hearted polls.

Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, told Computer World that the online election technology would set up Google for a range of online campaigns.

“I think it’s set up for both,” he said.

“Once we have more secure online identity, I think someday we will be able to vote online for president. To do this, we need hardened, multi-factor authentication, but we’ll get there.”

He said voting online might encourage more people to vote.