Experience the London 2012 Games with Google

The Olympic Games begin tomorrow in my home town, London, and more than half of the planet—some 4.8 billion people—will tune in to watch the London 2012 Games. To help you join in the excitement and glory of the Games, we’ve put together google.co.uk/olympics. Here’s a quick look at the updates, results and other content we’re bringing you from London 2012.

Discover and learn more
Want to know what your team’s next medal prospect is, or if you’ve missed Oscar Pistorius make history in the 400m? Here are a few ways we’re helping you get all the hottest news in a flash:

• Search from your desktop, phone or tablet for [london 2012], a country team like [Team GB], or a sport like archery], and you’ll see up-to-the-minute detailed information such as the schedule, medal count, and Olympic records in your search results.
• In the Hot Searches section of the site, we show you which topics, athletes or events are being searched for by fans around the world. The analysis is updated hourly, and you can click on any search to read associated news articles.
• On Google Play, find a collection of useful apps, from results trackers to games , for download on your Android device.  

Connect with your teams and favourite athletes
I’ll be cheering on both the stars and the underdogs, and closely following the updates from the Games:

• Get the latest posts from +The Olympics Games and the competing teams on Google+. (I’ll be rooting for my home country, +Team GB 
• Show who you’re supporting by customising your cover photo on Google+ (or other social network)

Explore London like you’re there
Living in London, I’ve been lucky enough to see the transformation of the East End of the city over the past few years, but for those of you who live outside the city, you can still see the sights online..

• Fly around the Olympic Park, explore the cycling and marathon courses or take a virtual tour of London landmarks in Google Earth
• Compare aerial imagery of the London of 1948 (the last time London hosted the Games) to the London of today.

Watch the action as it happens—and see highlights from past Games
For the hundreds of millions of people unable to make it to London, YouTube is helping bring the games to you in a number of markets around the world.

• For the first time, U.S. viewers can watch any event on NBCOlympics.com; 3,500 hours will be streamed in all. YouTube will power NBC’s online video experience on NBCOlympics.com. You can also access pre-game clips on the NBC Olympics YouTube channel.
• If you’re in one of 64 markets across Africa and Asia, including India, Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria, the IOC will be streaming the Olympics live on YouTube
• For those of you who can’t wait for the games to begin or want to relive great moments from some of the previous 29 Olympiads, explore an archive on YouTube—some of my favourites are Derek Redmond’s inspirational finish of the 400m semi-final in Barcelona 1992, Cathy Freeman’s gold medal in the 400m at Sydney 2000 and Afghanistan's first-ever Olympic medal at Beijing 2008.

Find it all at www.google.co.uk/olympics. Posted by Richard Keelty, Product Marketing Manager, Google U.K.