Google confirmed this week that during the World Cup match between Argentina and Egypt, Google search usage hit its highest ever record, breaking all previous records. Nick Fox, Google's senior vice president of knowledge and information, said on the social platform
In recent years, Google has continuously strengthened its information service capabilities in major sports events, providing real-time winning and losing probabilities, team starting lineups, live text commentary and other information during football matches, becoming the first choice for a large number of fans to obtain real-time match status and data. The article pointed out that it is still not entirely clear why many users flocked to open Google searches after Argentina scored the winning goal. They may want to check the updated instant winning rate and evaluate whether Egypt still has a chance of an upset victory or a draw.
The report also quoted another view that some of the World Cup matches were held in the United States, and the popularity and development foundation of soccer (soccer/football) in the United States still lags behind that of Latin America and Europe. This may also prompt a large number of American viewers to search on Google to understand the rules, score trends, and event background information. Since Google has integrated scores, schedules, data panels and other content in search results, this "check while watching" usage scenario has further boosted search traffic.
From the perspective of the game itself, this matchup between Argentina and Egypt was also quite dramatic. According to Elo Ratings, Argentina is currently ranked second in the world, while Egypt is only ranked 34th. However, Egypt once achieved a 2:0 lead in the game and was regarded as a quite remarkable performance. However, in the last 15 minutes of the game, Argentina scored three goals in a row to complete a stunning comeback, knocking Egypt out of the competition and locking itself in the quarterfinals.
The pre- and post-match prediction data provided by Google shows that Argentina will face the powerful Swiss team in the next quarter-finals, and the current probability of Argentina winning is estimated to be 57%. Since the knockout rounds have not yet entered the climax of the competition, the article believes that if highly topical scenes such as "kills" and "reversals" occur again in the semi-finals and finals, the instantaneous traffic record of Google search may be further refreshed.
Neowin's report ended by asking readers an interactive question: Do you continue to pay attention to this World Cup, and which team do you support more? As of now, the teams still remaining in this World Cup include France, Morocco, Spain, Belgium, Norway, England, Argentina and Switzerland. The following knockout stages are expected to continue to amplify the dual superposition effect of the popularity of watching the game and online instant messaging services.