Google makes a play for NCAA March Madness fans

With the first round of the NCAA men's Division I basketball championship underway, Google Inc. is making a play of its own.

Google Thursday launched several tools to help college basketball fans who are deep into March Madness.

"I always go a little crazy -- you might even say mad -- this time of year," wrote Nundu Janakiram, an associate product manager at Google, in a blog post. "I still root for my hometown Arizona State Sun Devils. I fill out my bracket ... and get into arguments with friends of mine from the [University of Arizona]. I'm a little obsessed. If you're like me, then I have some good news for you. We have several products that can help you follow the tournament."

To track the action, basketball fans can add a new College Basketball 2009 iGadget to get minute by minute news on their Google personalized home pages. Google search users now will get live scores when they search for their favorite team and they can do local searchers to find the best spot to watch the big games. The company also noted that, as expected, news about the tournament will be all over Google News.

"This is a very good idea from Google," said Dan Olds, principle analyst from the Gabriel Consulting Group. " March Madness is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and it's avidly tracked by millions of people. Since many of those millions of people also have jobs and stuff, they need a way to satisfy their craving for hoop info during the work day. Streaming games in the office is too much, but being able to get Google updates might be just right for many. And it gives Google a way to capture some eyeballs that might otherwise be hitting ESPN or CBSsports.com."

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