14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo and Adidas are partners and official World Cup sponsors, and Google and Nike have realized that alone they don't stand a chance and have decided to partner.
And the result of the new partnership is called Joga.com, a social networking site dedicated to soccer.
The name Joga comes from the Portuguese expression ?Joga Bonito", which means "play beautiful".
According to the site's description, "Joga is an online community created by Google and Nike for anyone anywhere in the world who shares a love for soccer, the world's most popular sport. Joga is about getting to know your fellow fans; creating games and clubs; accessing athletes from Nike; and enjoying video clips and photos (you can even upload your own)."
BusinessWeek says the idea for Joga.com was inspired by MySpace.com, Nike thinking that a soccer-orienting community might be not so bad after all.
"As we saw the social networks grow in the U.S. and elsewhere, we asked, 'What if this was around sports, a specific sport?'" Trevor Edwards, Nike's vice president for global brand management, told BusinessWeek.
As you probably guessed, joga.com combines the Orkut.com technologies with Nike's content.
Currently, the site can be accessed only by members, and to become one, you have to receive an invitation from a friend or to leave the email address on the site and get one.