Many Americans have filled out brackets and are watching the results of March Madness at the NCAA men's basketball tournament play out in real time. Now Google has gotten in on the fun, releasing its own bracket and several infographics on the annual American phenomenon.
In information provided by a spokesperson at Google, the company created a college basketball bracket that indicated the final four teams could be Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke and Louisville. As for the winner of the overall championship, that would go to Kentucky.
"The Google Bracket features winners based on NCAA men's basketball-related searches on Google, as well as views, comments, and likes on YouTube videos," a Google spokesperson said. "All data was pulled during the 2014-2015 NCAA men's regular season."
Google emphasized that the bracket it created from its data was not making predictions for game winners; it merely focused on online activity by users. The Google Bracket also stated that its information was "based on fan activity across Google platforms."
Google also forward several infographics that focused on other search terms people used in relation to college basketball, based on the trends measured. They included the most searched team mascot, NCAA conference, college coaches and "team swag."
Based on the Google Trends infographic, Wichita State University's WuShock took the top sport, followed by Bucky the Bison of Bucknell University, Howl of Arkansas State Red Wolves and Sparky the Eagle of Liberty University.
Given that the NCAA is divided into several conferences, Google also analyzed which of them had the most searches on its website. Its data indicated that the Big Ten conference received 33 percent of Google searches, while Southeastern conference (SEC) was close behind at 31 percent followed by Atlantic Coast conference at 21 percent and Pac-12 conference at 15 percent.
NCAA coaches were also a significant search topic on Google Trends. Searches for Mike Krzyzewski of Duke commanded 48 percent on Google, while John Calipari of Kentucky trailed a distant second at 22 percent followed by Rick Pitino of Louisville at 17 percent and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse at 13 percent.
Google also indicated that college basketball fans were looking for "team swag" to support their respective teams. In terms of college merchandise, Google Trends indicated that 52 percent of searches looked for Duke shirts, 25 percent looked for UCLA sweaters, 14 percent for UConn jerseys, and 9 percent for Baylor shorts.
Infographics Credit: Google
