Twitter, in a bid to capitalize on the most prestigious tournament in all of sports, has launched an impressive and comprehensive site aimed at World Cup fans, soccer aficionados, or anyone with just a smidge of national pride.
Located at twitter.com/worldcup, the site offers dedicated gateways to news and tweets surrounding each of the 32 participating countries. A "What's Happening?" bar across the top will take you to live updates and tweets for any matches in progress. (Currently, it takes users to info on the opening match between Mexico and South Africa, which commences at 10 am Eastern time Friday.) Direct links to aggregated tweets from all individual matches are also found on the main page.
In a statement, Twitter cofounder Biz Stone cited his company's "rapid international growth" as one reason why Twitter put such resources into the effort. Indeed, more than 60 percent of Twitter users come from outside the US (although what percentage of Twitter accounts that originate solely from the 32 participating nations is unknown). All this means that, unlike when Twitter was just a newbie site during the '06 World Cup, the burden is on the social media juggernaut to deliver for millions of users around the world. "We are part of this global phenomenon," Stone said, "as people everywhere seek to discover what's happening with their favorite team, their favorite players, and breaking news."
Beyond the main landing page, Twitter has also whipped up a World Cup-centric Suggested Accounts List and a Top Tweets account that algorithmically gathers pertinent World Cup tweets from roughly 150 players, journalists, organizations, and sites.
Perhaps coolest of all is what Twitter is calling "hashflags." Any user who tweets with the relevant hashtag of a member nation — such as #usa, #mex, or #bra — will get a miniature version of that country's flag appearing next to the hashtag. For all those who'll be following the South African action from from afar, it's a small yet creative way to show your followers some soccer spirit.
