World Cup: Google Does The Logo Thing; Yahoo & Ask Have Smart Shortcuts

Google’s sporting a special World Cup-version of its logo in honor of the
start of the World Cup today, while Yahoo and Ask are offering special results
that come up after World Cup-related searches. A round-up of what’s going on,
below.

Over at Google, there’s new
World Cup module that
you can add to your personalized home page to keep up on matches and standings.
The company is also promoting the new module on its regular home page to
encourage take-up. ZDNet has a
screenshot of
that. Here’s what I see from the UK:

The Official Google Blog is also
pushing
other ways to tap into World Cup info via Google, though most of these things
are pretty generic.

Gary Price has done a

recap of other things in the search world touching on the World Cup,
focusing on ways to get mobile alerts in the US and in Europe and the fast facts
that FIFA is offering.

Gary also spots a World Cup Yahoo Shortcut you can see

here (but no Yahoo logo change, not even on Yahoo Germany). Ask is offering
a similar Smart Answer service as you’ll see
here. Ask also didn’t
change its logo, but the home page shows flags for each team in the World Cup:

Click on the flag, and you’ll get a Smart Answer with related info like you’ll
see for the US
here.

Over at MSN Search,
no custom
answers and no logo changes that I can see (nor
at Windows Live Search, either). But back to Google, they are doing some
OneBox answers, like you’ll see
here or
here.

Over at Technorati, there’s nothing on
the home page indicating anything special for the World Cup for those who want
to track it in the blogosphere. Clearly if Niall Kennedy
hadn’t left,
the World Cup would be all over Technorati. Niall declares his love of soccer

here today (so Niall, get on your MSN Windows Live colleagues to do
something).

OK, OK, the MSN portal home page is at least
pointing to
a two minute guide to the World Cup done in conjunction with Fox Sports. Of
course, this is the same partnership whose official store can’t send US football
kit for kids when promise, so phooey on them. More on that, plus my own thoughts
on the World Cup madness that’s starting on my personal blog in
In The Middle Of World Cup Mad
England, I Root For The US.

Don’t forget, yesterday’s post
US, UK Searchers
& The World Cup covered some of the top searches involving footballers in
the UK and the US.

Am I missing something? Comment!!! It’s easy — just head to
World Cup,
Search & Stuff at our Search Engine Watch Forums.

Postscript: Google Blogoscoped notes there are different country-specific logos at Google using the team colors of those countries