Google Olympics - 5 ways to use Google products to help you enjoy the Olympics!

The Olympics start today and Google have launched a range of products to help internet users enjoy the Games! 5 of my favourite examples are below.

Google also have an Olympics Google Doodle on the Google homepage today to celebrate:

Google Olympic Games Doodle on the Google Home page today

Here are the 5 ways that you can use Google products to enhance your enjoyment of the Olympic Games:

1) 3D Olympic Games stadiums in Google Earth

3D Birds Nest stadium on Google Earth with embedded additional information

In the same way that Google Earth included 3D Euro 2008 stadiums Google Earth has 3D versions of all the Olympic Games venues. The 3D Olympic stadiums include embedded information about event schedules and venue information. Panaramio photos and fly throughs are also embedded. More here:
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/08/off-to-games.html

2) Google Olympic Games OneBox

Google OneBox for 'Tennis Olympics'

Event information and timings are available by just typing 'event name Olympics' into Google. Simple, but really effective way of getting event info!

3) Olympic Games iGoogle gadgets

Screengrab of part of the list of iGoogle Olympic games gadgets

A large number of iGoogle Olympic Games gadgets are available for users' personalised iGoogle homepages.

4) Google Maps - embedded Olympic Games medals tables

screengrab of Olympic Games medals table embedded into Google Maps

Medals tables are being embedded into Google Maps so it is easy to get the latest medal stats for any country.

5) Olympic Games YouTube channel

Screengrab of the Olympics YouTube channel

There is an official Olympics YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/BeijingOlympics2008 containing Olympic Games related videos.

The Olympic Games is a great opportunity for Google to showcase their product portfolio on a global basis and Google have clearly thought hard and invested significant time into the development of these products - once again showing the versatility of the Google portfolio. Google are also planning to offer all of these services for mobile as well as desktop consumption.

Links:

5 ways to use Google to help enjoy the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

Details of the BBC's Olympics ad with Gorillaz animation and Damon Albarn soundtrack

My Dear Second Brother on the Right - new Olympic hero has name and is not competing!

Michael Phelps Facebook Fan Page - over a million fans now!

Full coverage of the Google Olympic Games initiatives from the Google blog