Google is making it easier than ever to follow the World Cup action — with a little help from The Worldwide Leader in Sports.
The search giant has partnered with ESPN to show video highlights from ESPNFC of World Cup matches when people perform a relevant search.
For example, when you search for either “Croatia,” or, “Brazil,” or, “Croatia vs. Brazil” — among other queries — you’ll see information and highlight videos from Thursday’s opening World Cup match.
The new feature also works for ongoing matches. Right now, Mexico is playing Cameroon. When you conduct a search for that game, you can see updated goal highlights and in-game information — yellow cards, red cards, penalties, goals, etc.
This is a new type of deal for Google, which does not typically show content from a third party in search results. Google inked a similar partnership with Uber last month when it integrated Uber into Google Maps, but this is the first deal that features a separate company providing content for Google search queries. Re/code notes that Google and ESPN will not exchange money for this deal and will not share ad revenue.
Editor’s note: Love soccer? Make sure to join the fun in the GeekWire World Cup Challenge.
