Ronaldo scores on Google

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo is the player Google users are searching for the most as the World Cup gets underway in South Africa.

"In search, the winning player is already clear: Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese team captain and talented forward," the Internet giant said in a blog post on Friday.

Besides Ronaldo, Google said analysis of search queries found heavy interest from Web surfers in Brazil's Kaka, England's Wayne Rooney, Argentina's Lionel Messi and Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands.

Google also said there was much more interest online in injured Dutch winger Arjen Robben than there was in Wednesday's elections in the Netherlands.

"In the days leading up to the June 9 elections, between four and five times as many searches were done for Robben than either of the two popular candidates," Google said.

Google said World Cup searches were spiking "although overall World Cup buzz seems to be off to a slower start in 2010 than in the months leading up to the 2006 tournament, based on global trends."

As the tournament kicked off on Friday, the hottest searches on Google in the United States concerned how to watch the opening match between South Africa and Mexico on television or online.

(c) 2010 AFP