The "In Quotes" project in Google Labs is an interesting attempt to leverage information from Google News to try to help people understand where public figures stand on topics and issues by extracting quotes. Google says "Much of the published reporting about people is based on the interpretation of a journalist. Direct quotes, on the other hand, are concrete units of information that describe how newsmakers represent themselves."

The interface is pretty simple to use. Enter keywords or click the provided words to compare quotes from the 2 public figures who have been vocal on the given topic area. Then you can click through what each person was reported to have said on the topic, or use the fun Spin button, which is a like a pulling a slot machine to change the quotes shown.