The Best Search Engines for Real-Time Sports Scores

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Product Marketing Manager (Search and Performance Media)

There’s a lot going on in the sports world lately.  This weekend I found myself watching baseball with NASCAR picture-in-picture while at the same time monitoring the NBA Playoffs and NHL Playoffs online and keeping an eye on the golf leader board.  In times like these, we need a search engine that delivers real-time sports scores in the clutch.  Here’s the engines that have stepped up their game:

Baseball: MSN

I prefer not to leave the SERP to get the “red sox score.”  Both Google and MSN tell me the score right on the SERP in a OneBox, while Yahoo! and Ask.com strike out.  I do like the Google box score, but the MSN listings hit in out of the park.  I can get the score and a quick snapshot of the standings and team news.  That’s why MSN wins the division and Google takes the wild card:

 

Basketball: MSN

The MSN basketball score listings are the same as MSN baseball score listings.  Google is also solid, while Yahoo! and Ask.com throw up bricks.  Ask.com gives me an overview of the team, including when they were founded and what stadium they play at, information that’s an air ball when I need a quick score:

 

 

Hockey: Google

Google is the only engine on Power Play with real-time OneBox results for hockey.  MSN, Yahoo!, and Ask.com completely miss the net by showing me old scores:

 

Golf: Google

This was a close one between Google and MSN, but Google wins in a sudden death playoff because of the real-time leader board, while MSN only features news listings:

 

NASCAR: Ask.com

Ask.com, which happens to be the official search engine of NASCAR and sponsor of #96 Bobby Labonte, is the only engine that doesn’t blow out when you need real-time NASCAR results:

Soccer: Google

Sometimes Google will deliver multiple OneBox results if Google doesn’t know if you’re searching for the Texas baseball Rangers, the New York hockey Rangers, or the Scottish Premier League soccer Rangers.  In this result, I got the hockey and soccer OneBoxes, but whiffed on the baseball OneBox (taken while the Texas Rangers’ game was in progress):

Comments

[Scott]

Mobile could be pretty important here too. Let's say I'm sitting at the cubs game, I'm going to want updates on what else is going on in the sports world. Wrigley leaves something to be desired when it comes to technology and non-baseball score updates.