14 DAY TRIAL // With the 2010 World Cup literally kicking off in a few days, Google is getting the football fever just like the rest of the world. While Googlers don’t seem to be the biggest football fans, the scale of the event couldn’t be ignored. Plenty of its products are getting World Cup-themed features, including the search engine. Already, you can see upcoming matches and the Group lineup. You can also check out places to watch the matches on Google Maps and even view the stadiums in 3D.
“Whether you’ll be in South Africa in person this month, or simply cheering your team on from back home, our new tools for football fans can help you soak up the atmosphere and follow your team wherever you are in the world,” Yonca Brunini, marketing director, Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (SEEMEA) at Google, wrote.
“If you’re staying back home but want to find a great place to watch the match with your friends, take a look on Google Maps and look for the special football icon—that tells you that the location is one of tens of thousands of businesses who have added themselves to Google Places as a football viewing location,” she added.
Searching for “world cup” or related terms will reveal all the expected results, but also some dedicated information. You can see upcoming matches, when they get underway the results will probably be listed as well, and the groups. Again, group standing will probably be available once the teams start gaining some points.
Google hasn’t posted any World Cup doodles just yet, though you can bet those are coming soon, but it has done something even more interesting. The fun part is way at the bottom of the page. If you search for “world cup” and you ever make it that far down the page, you’ll notice that the regular Google logo used to browse the results pages has been changed to something very familiar to football fans.
