Tag: sports

Trendy India defies the rest of the world – huh!

Click on each link to pull up the Google Trends report.

  1. In India, Movies have always been more popular than TV. The trend is almost always the reverse in all the other countries where both searches are popular.
  2. Rang De Basanti was a lot more popular than Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna.
  3. Blogs are more popular than newspapers with the online community in India. Only a few other countries exhibit this trend. Update: The trend report for the search term ‘blog’ versus ‘newspaper’ refutes this conclusion, look at the comments for more on using Google Trends reliably.
  4. BSNL and AirTel are the most searched of telecom providers in India. Hutch is a close third and is very popular in West Bengal, while AirTel rules the North.
  5. Searches for Naukri edge out searches for Monster by a close margin. Both trend lines reveal a lot more Indians are going online to look for jobs.
  6. Shah Rukh Khan is more searched than Aamir Khan by online users. Interestingly, more searches for Shah Rukh Khan originated from Rabat, Morocco, than Delhi, India. Amitabh Bachchan does not make much of a dent here. Update: Prateek also suggests that one take into account different ways of spelling – e.g. ‘Shah Rukh’ also becomes ‘Shahrukh’.
  7. Sachin Tendulkar beats Rahul Dravid as far as online trends go… Dhoni makes a surprise climb up the ranks.
  8. The online community can’t decide between Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. On the day of Singh’s appointment to the PM’ship of India, the trend was very different. Pervez Musharraf is eclipsed by the turbaned Indian Prime Minister.
  9. Only for a little while – Football was more popular than Cricket. You guessed it right, the timing coincided with the FIFA world cup, 2006.
  10. Searches for the keyword Matrimony outnumbered searches for Shaadi. Update: Prateek also suggests having a look at the report for ‘marriage ‘ and ‘wedding’ which are much higher than the other two terms.
  11. Mutual Funds are more popular than Shares. The search volumes are the highest in India. Update: The report on ‘stocks’ reveals one more story. In contrast to the rest of the world, the online populace from India still prefer Mutual Funds.
  12. Karan Johar will be happy to hear that he has finally overtaken Mithun as far as online searches go!
  13. IIM’s are catching up to the IIT’s in popularity.
  14. While global interest in GPRS is declining, GPRS interest in India remains just about the same for the last 3 years. Meanwhile, interest in AirTel keeps going climbing. Is India going to be over GPRS even before it can catch on?
  15. Tandoor is just as popular as Chaat or Halwa. Of course, Chaat Cafe (San Jose) has both Chaat and Tandoor, something you won’t see often in India! Update: Prateek points out that a report comparing ‘tandoori’, ‘tandoor’, ‘chaat’, ‘halwa’ would be more on target with tandoori coming out on top.
  16. Goa is much more popular than Himachal, search volumes predict a lot of tourists from the UK in Goa this year.
  17. Google searchers search for India more than its rival China. The pleasures of democracy 🙂 or is this the Baidu effect?

Inspired by: Micro Persuasion: 25 things I learned from Google Trends.

Disclaimer: Google Trends is only a tool. Any conclusions you can draw from the trend reports is at your own risk.

Italy beat France to lift the FIFA world cup

I want to believe that Football is bigger than the individual, despite David Trézéguet’s missed penalty, Thierry Henry’s many opportunities, Fabian Barthez’s inability to keep a clean sheet, and Luigi Buffon’s incredible block that kept Zidane’s shot out. There was no one reason why France lost. The better team won. And yet, I thought France could no longer win after Zinedine Zidane’s irrational reaction to the verbal duel with Marco Materazzi.

It was also sad to see Patrick Vieira leave the field with an injury mid-way through the game.

BBC News: Italy beat France in penalty shoot-out.

Alonso doesn’t think the Constructor’s championship is important

Alonso is happy with driver’s crown [BBC]
Arrey wah! Alonso ne eclair khake declare kar liya!

My sarcasm translated – if your losing to your opponent, simply call the trophy unimportant. Alonso has made a fell move to discredit McLaren’s efforts to seal the constructor’s championship. Ahh, this is one of the moments the 2005 F1 champion is going to regret later on. He even calls the season a “Perfect season”. With sportsmen like these, who needs pussies?

Asia Cup Cricket

This is now my official page for Asia Cup Cricket to keep track of the scores, players, records and fixtures.

Teams playing:
1. India (Favorites)
2. Pakistan
3. Sri Lanka
4. Bangladesh
5. UAE
6. Hong Kong (whoa? Did not know they played cricket)

Asia Cup Fixtures 2004
Group A: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong
Group B: Sri Lanka, India, UAE

Phase one:

16 July:
Bangladesh v Hong Kong (SSC)
India v UAE (Dambulla) 4:30am ET

17 July:
Pakistan v Bangladesh (SSC)
Sri Lanka v UAE (Dambulla) 4:30am ET

18 July:
Pakistan v Hong Kong (SSC)
Sri Lanka v India (Dambulla) 4:30am ET

Phase two:

21 July: A2 v B2 (SSC)
21 July: A1 v B1 (Premadasa) 4:30am ET
23 July: A2 v B1 (Premadasa) 4:30am ET
25 July: A1 v B2 (Premadasa) 4:30am ET
27 July: B1 v B2 (Premadasa) 4:30am ET
29 July: A1 v A2 (Premadasa) 4:30am ET
1 Aug: Final (Premadasa) 4:30am ET
2 Aug: Reserve day

I don’t have all the timings yet, but that should be easy to get.

Hongkong Cricket team

Here is the take on the HK cricket team courtesy of BBC:

The two minnows in the competition have nothing to lose, with Hong Kong relishing the opportunity to play in a major tournament for the first time.

They are coached by Robin Singh, who played 136 one-day internationals for India, the last as recently as 2001.

He believes they have a half a chance against Bangladesh, who have only won once in the last five years.

“Playing cricket for your country, be it your country of adoption, is a big thing,” said skipper Rahul Sharma.

Their 14-man squad includes there are seven Pakistani-born players, two Indians, a Nepalese national, two British, one Australian and one Chinese.

The UAE won three of their five matches at the ICC Six Nations Challenge earlier this year and are relatively strong in battying with a line-up headed by Syed Maqsood, Khuram Khan and Asim Saeed.

Singh believes left-arm spinner Ahmed Madeem could also have an important part to play.

“If he can hit the right line, the Sri Lankan wickets are bound to assist him,” he said.

Full report

Who would have thought?

Greece won… no kidding. Portugal were beaten 1-0.

Of the two shots that Greece had on goal, one was off target, the other was the goal that won them the match. In comparision, Portugal had 16 opportunities!

Portugal vs Netherlands

It’s hard to say who will win. Netherlands have been scraping through their earlier games and really need to up the ante when they play this one.

Update (June 25, 2006): The next time these teams will meet is tonight – FIFA World Cup 2006, Germany! The highlight of this 2004 Euro cup game on google video.