A different picture is illustrated in the second chart (directly below). The red line represents "Labour Party", the orange line "Liberal Democrats", and the blue line "Conservative Party".
Of course, this type of information may have no predictive value. The UK Polling Report (an independent survey and polling news website) shows that the majority of polls paint a closer picture, but with a distinct lead for the Conservative Party. Could the higher search (and news) reference volume for "Gordon Brown" be due to an incumbency effect? Could the higher search (and news) reference volume for "Liberal Democrats" be due to a novelty effect? Of course, we can't attempt an answer until later in the week. Many punters have already placed their bets though: bookmakers estimate that up to £40m will have been bet on this election, smashing previous records.
Finally, the Intrade prediction market indicates that the Conservative Party have roughly a 90% chance of winning, as shown in the third chart (directly below).
The Inkling Prediction Market indicates here that there is a 66% chance of a hung parliament, and a 32% chance of a win by the Conservative Party.
Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, discusses prediction markets here in the NYT, from a few years ago. The emphasis in the article is on the "Pentagon-sponsored futures market in terrorism indicators (that) was announced and squashed in all of two days."
