By Mark Baber
June 13 – California-based Google is taking the World Cup very seriously, with a world cup theme for the opening day, football-specific content and a trends page which helps understand what fans are searching for on the web and even, the company claims, the mood of each nation.
According to Google, with just one match in the tournament played so far, there have been “145.6 million World Cup-related searches.” From their Google trends page it is clear that searches are particularly focused on World Cup superstars and personalities such as Mario Balotelli, Arjen Robben and Neymar.
Google have also developed an algorithm which analyses search terms used to measure the “mood” of each nation going into their matches.
Following the Brazil-Croatia opener, Google describe the mood of the Brazilian fans as “unstoppable” with 61% positive, 23% neutral and just 16% negative. Unsurprisingly, (given some poor refereeing decisions including a highly dubious penalty given and Neymar scoring two goals after committing a red card offence) Croatians are described as “annoyed” with 13% positive 40% neutral and 47% negative.
Ahead of the England-Italy game, England searchers are described as “casual” with 27% positive 57% neutral and 16% negative whilst Italians are described as “Okay” with 21% positive, 53% neutral and 26% negative.
Going into their opening games the Germans, Portuguese, Spanish and Netherlands are all equally “confident.”
Mexicans are “hopeful”, Cameroonians “undecided”, Ghanaians “indifferent” and Americans “unsure” with 24% positive, 38% neutral and 38% negative.
Chile are inexplicable unhappy – with a miserable 65% negative, 20 % neutral and only 15% positive going into tonight’s game against Australia. Despite facing the likelihood of a drubbing from Chile, whose star player Arturo Vidal, will apparently be fit, Australians are feeling “Fine” and apparently not that bothered, with 60% neutral, 17% positive and just 23% negative.
Australians are, it has to be said, still more likely to search for “Kangeroos” than “Socceroos.”
Google also provides the most common questions asked in relation to each upcoming game which provides some interesting insights into the World Cup audience.
The most common questions that the public most wants answers to around the Italy-England game are: “What language do they speak in Brazil?” “What channel is the World Cup on?” “What time is it in Brazil?” “What time is the opening ceremony in Brazil 2014?” “Why does Balotelli’s shirt say “why always me?” and the difficult to explain “Why do Italians win World Cups?”
Two of the most popular questions puzzling US fans are, “How do you juggle a soccer ball?” and “What does FC mean in soccer?” Those searching around the Spain and the Netherlands game are particularly concerned to find an answer to the question “What does a red card mean?”
Google highlights that even during the French Open, national searches for “Les Bleus” were 2x higher than those for the top three French tennis players combined. However, The Netherlands has shown more search interest in Wesley Sneijder’s wife, Yolanthe Cabau, than in their first opponent Spain and England searched more for David Luiz’s rumoured haircut than for their next opponent, Italy.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1731840170labto1731840170ofdlr1731840170owedi1731840170sni@r1731840170ebab.1731840170kram1731840170