After FB and Twitter, here's Google's FIFA World Cup page

Google’s FIFA World Cup page is ready and it sure does look good. The page can be accessed at google.com/trends/worldcup as a part of the Google Trends section. The page has all the latest stats, player news and live game updates in one spot. Users who now search for “World Cup” or “World Cup Brazil” or World Cup followed but the name of any country, will see this data pop up on top of the results page. The full page shows a list of all the upcoming matches with full details about the teams. Users can also stay updated on their favourite teams with Google Now. They will be given an option to start seeing cards with stats about each match that you can tap for more detail. Google’s trend experience will look at all the key moments that define this World Cup. The site will explore the following areas, and also look at highlights leading up to and after each match. Sentiment: This looks at how an entire country is feeling- positive, negative or neutral about an upcoming match-as reflected through search trends and public Google+ conversations. As you can see Croatia is feeling pretty annoyed post the match against Brazil. World Focus: It shows a comparison of which team is being searched for more on Google. Top Questions: Each upcoming match also has a set of trending questions. This is both before and after kickoff, so its a good way to look at what is being discussed after a big match. [caption id=“attachment_1569251” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A screenshot of Google’s World Cup page.[/caption] Rising Players: This shows who are the players to watch out and how they rank in search compared with their teammates, rival team players. It also shows which player is doing better on search after a match. For instance, currently Neymar is top on the list of people of interest for Brazil. Google’s Street View will now allow users to get an inside view of the 12 stadiums where the World Cup is being played to the iconic painted streets as well. Compared to Facebook and Twitter, Google’s page is definitely overwhelming and exceptionally well-designed. It’s also deeply focused on search and thus it won’t seem as personal as the conversations on Twitter or Facebook. But it does have the advantage of giving a sense of how and what people are searching for online when it comes to the FIFA World Cup and for a lot of journalists this is a god-send. Then, of course the trending questions about each match are a fun read themselves. For example, post the Brazil-Croatia match, Neymar neck tattoo is the highest search question. Now who wouldn’t want to see those search results. As far as Twitter is concerned, users can choose a team they are supporting and then have a custom profile and header photos. Twitter is also providing fans with a list of accounts to follow that are related to their chosen team - from players to news organisations to the teams themselves. There’s also going to be a Timeline on Twitter dedicated to World Cup updates. Users just have to type #WorldCup or #WorldCup2014 in search to view these updates. It also has a list of the all the teams, the upcoming matches, and there’s even a scoreboard. Meanwhile, Facebook has ensured that once the World Cup begins, users can ‘share’ the specific match by selecting “watching” in the post option. If they are in the US, UK, India, Canada, or Australia, they can get to the special page by clicking World Cup, which will be a permanent fixture in the Trending section. Facebook has also introduced something called The Ref, which it calls Facebook’s ‘official’ official of the tournament. The Ref’s page will show “colourful commentary and updates” about matches. This could also be the space where a lot of memes, angry posts get shared on Facebook. For a full list of more apps that are available for the FIFA World Cup click here. And now with Google’s massive search page, this FIFA World Cup is all set to be the most digitally searched and discussed one as well.