Author Archives: Mackenzie Thomas

Basketball and brackets: a March love story

March is synonymous with college basketball. Though my basketball career peaked in middle school, I still find myself cheering for the underdog and watching replays of buzzer beaters night after night. As college basketball heats up, we’ll fill out our brackets (I’m partial to Carolina Blue!), and follow along to the latest women’s and men’s games. Here are some ways to use Search to keep up with your favorite teams and athletes, and catch the best plays from all 100+ games across the tournaments.

Stats leaderboard, trends addition

Across Search we are seeing that people can’t wait for the games to tip off. Search interest in the United States for “when does march madness start” increased +1,700% in the past month. But with bragging rights on the line, people are also searching for “Bracketology,” which has been a breakout search topic all throughout the regular season in the US. In the spirit of friendly competition, we’ve decided to share ours with you, because who needs a high NET ranking when you have search interest to help pick a winner?

Search interest in the United States for “when does march madness start” increased +1,700% in the past month.
Basketball bracket for the women's tournament decided based on Search interest.
Basketball bracket for the men's tournament decided based on Search interest.

Keeping up with every play on Search

Now, if it's hard for you to catch every game or maybe you just need an excuse to relive every play, you can do just that. We partnered with Turner Sports, CBS and the NCAA to help you tune-in live with March Madness Live and bring you in-game highlights and post-game recaps, all accessible through Search. Simply look up or click on a specific game and you will have access to real-time content, ensuring you don’t miss a single moment of nail-biting basketball.

No matter which team you’re rooting for, we hope these features make Search work better for everyone. Here’s to a college basketball filled March and best of luck with your brackets.