FA Premier League Matches Brought to You by Google

Google's OneBox has become one of the most useful additions to the best search engine on the web because it provides quite relevant information depending on the keyword the user types. From now on, the OneBox also displays information about the FA Premier League matches, including here results and the next league fixture for the team you enter. Type, for instance, Chelsea and you'll find out that The Blues won the last game with Newcastle with 2-0 while the next game is scheduled for May 11 against Bolton.

Although this may be a very good addition to OneBox, the EPL Talk editors have brought in discussion the license needed to display the results and statistics, license which is provided by Football DataCo Limited. According to Wikipedia, Football Data Co Limited is a British company which "grants licenses to third parties allowing them to reproduce certain intellectual property (such as fixture lists and statistics) owner by the FA Premier League." That's exactly what Google is now providing through the new OneBox update.

"What's intriguing is whether Google is actually paying the licence fees to display the fixtures. By law, publishers must pay a licence fee to the Football DataCo Limited company that in turn shares the money with the clubs in the Premier League and Football League," EPL Talk wrote in their article. "License fees aside, it's encouraging news that Google has embraced football and has provided a simple way for users to locate essential information. It appears that Google has selected the EPL first and no other football league or other sport has been tested."

Beside this new OneBox feature, Google SMS and Google mobile search already provide similar fixtures and statistics for matches from NBA, NHL, Bundesliga, Serie A and other championships, blogger Ionut Alex Chitu informs.