The 2011 Rugby World Cup begins today in New Zealand and in recognition of this every four year event, Google has a Doodle on the homepage in New Zealand. The link, however, doesn't go to a search for the event, rather a general search for rugby.
While the All Blacks are one of the favorites for the tournament, it is interesting that Google didn't include the logo at other countries that are also big rugby fans - countries where the interest in the Rugby World Cup is as intense as soccer - such as Australia and South Africa.
Search numbers will be higher for RWC in a few countries - bigger populations being main reason - and Google could have gained a lot more traffic usage if other countries had the logo.
New Zealand opens the tournament against Tonga today - the international time zones make the days different and many of the games in the early hours of other countries.
The RWC runs from September 9 to October 23 with teams playing in pools before beginning the elimination rounds.
The RWC game schedule shows the games being played at numerous locations throughout the country.
If you're in the U.S., games can be seen on NBC and their subsidiary Universal Sports. It will be interesting to see if Google shows game scores when team searches are done like is done now with numerous sports - and hopefully not limit them to New Zealand.
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