{"id":2374,"date":"2022-03-26T14:38:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-26T14:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/26\/googling-march-madness-still-defaults-to-mens-games\/"},"modified":"2022-03-26T14:38:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-26T14:38:16","slug":"googling-march-madness-still-defaults-to-mens-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/26\/googling-march-madness-still-defaults-to-mens-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Googling \u2018March Madness\u2019 still defaults to men\u2019s games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/3\/25\/22996358\/google-march-madness-womens-sports-basketball<\/a>
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Sweet Sixteen games in this year\u2019s March Madness tip off tonight and tomorrow \u2014 all exciting games (like reigning national champions Stanford vs. Maryland) and one that is going to be deeply stressful for me personally (Connecticut vs. Indiana \u2014 go Huskies). <\/p>\n

You\u2019d be forgiven for thinking that the games started yesterday, though. As of this writing, searching \u201csweet sixteen march madness\u201d pulls up a schedule box for the men\u2019s tournament, which did have that round start yesterday. The women\u2019s games are relegated to a ribbon at the bottom.<\/p>\n

This is the first year<\/a> that the women\u2019s college basketball tournament is able to use the high-profile March Madness branding. The change came <\/strong>after an uproar over the embarrassingly inequitable conditions<\/a> at last year\u2019s women\u2019s games and another few months spent highlighting the many, many ways the NCAA has failed<\/a> its female<\/a> athletes. It should be a year to right some of the wrongs of the past iterations of the tournament and to put the women\u2019s game on the equal footing it has deserved for a long time. <\/p>\n

But things still aren\u2019t caught up on Google. When I searched for \u201cMarch Madness\u201d in Google, the first thing that came up is a box with the schedule for the men\u2019s tournament. The sidebar on the right is also for the men\u2019s tournament. Scroll down, and there\u2019s the results ribbon for the women\u2019s games, but no real links to more information. \u201cCollege basketball championship\u201d only pulls up the men\u2019s games, as well. <\/p>\n

Google spokesperson Ned Adriance said in a statement to The Verge<\/em> that search takes things like trending searches and game times into account when it tries to understand which teams or games people are looking for and that Google has made improvements<\/a> around March Madness. \u201cWhen people come to Search to find women\u2019s sports info and primarily find details for men\u2019s teams, we know that\u2019s not a great experience,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

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A screenshot taken on March 25.<\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a frustrating experience for sports reporter Claire Watkins, who writes the newsletter for Just Women\u2019s Sports <\/em>and also primarily sees men\u2019s scores pop up in her search results. <\/strong>The ribbon tacked on to the bottom of the men\u2019s tournament box doesn\u2019t include important details or links for women\u2019s games. If she wants the detailed information box for the women\u2019s tournament, she has to specifically add on \u201cwomen\u201d for any March Madness searches. <\/p>\n

\u201cI never want to type \u2018women\u2019 at the end of a search ever again,\u201d Watkins tweeted<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The same thing happens when I search for other sports using supposedly gender-neutral search terms: Champions League (which has both men\u2019s and women\u2019s iterations), US Soccer (which has a women\u2019s and men\u2019s team, and the women\u2019s team is far more successful<\/a>). For both, the men\u2019s schedule is up first. Watkins told me that her searches for things like \u201cNotre Dame ACC\u201d correctly figure out that she\u2019s looking for information about basketball \u2014 but gives her results for the men\u2019s team. <\/p>\n

Adriance said that it\u2019s sometimes hard for Google <\/strong>Search to disentangle sports information for reasons other than gender (like when multiple sports teams have the same name), and that sometimes, the women\u2019s iteration of a sport comes up first (like on searches for gymnastics or beach volleyball teams). Search also pulls up results based on the prevalence of a type of content online \u2014 so if there\u2019s more \u201crelevant, timely, and high-quality media\u201d coverage of a men\u2019s sport, that can influence search results. \u201cThat said, when it comes to our sports features, this is something we\u2019re actively working to improve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s frustrating to see something like Google make the argument that they might not show women\u2019s sports because there might not be as much information available about them. Women\u2019s sports are still trying to shake off decades of being undercut by organizations like the NCAA and underinvested in by networks and media. It\u2019s a choice to follow behind that baseline de-prioritization rather than take active steps to counteract it. Interest and viewership follow from TV networks\u2019 and tech companies\u2019 choices around what to promote. When those groups properly invest in and promote the women\u2019s game, treating it as a product in its own right<\/a> rather than a second-class subject<\/a>, people<\/a> watch<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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The greatest lie the @NCAA<\/a> ever told was that fans for @MarchMadnessWBB<\/a> didn’t exist. Watch what happens as they start giving women equal promotion, airtime, and those NIL checks keep pouring in. https:\/\/t.co\/V9sdbqJobe<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Alexis Ohanian 7\ufe0f\u20e37\ufe0f\u20e36\ufe0f\u20e3 (@alexisohanian) March 22, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Google search does this well with tennis \u2014 searching for a tournament generates a score box with the option to toggle between the men\u2019s and women\u2019s matchups, and it\u2019s easy to find what you\u2019re looking for. Adriance didn\u2019t say if that was a consideration for March Madness.<\/p>\n

Personally, I think it would be fun to just swap things around and have March Madness pull up women\u2019s sports only and force people to type in \u201cmen\u2019s\u201d if that\u2019s the tournament they want to find. But I\u2019ll settle for just not having to type in \u201cwomen\u2019s.\u201d When I search for basketball this month, the games I\u2019m interested in shouldn\u2019t need that qualifier. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n


<\/br><\/code><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/3\/25\/22996358\/google-march-madness-womens-sports-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Sweet Sixteen games in this year\u2019s March Madness tip off tonight and tomorrow \u2014 all exciting games (like reigning national champions Stanford vs. Maryland) and one that is going to be deeply stressful for me personally (Connecticut vs. Indiana \u2014 go Huskies). You\u2019d be forgiven for thinking that the games started yesterday, though. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-2374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-google","category-technology","tag-google"],"yoast_head":"\nGoogling \u2018March Madness\u2019 still defaults to men\u2019s games - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/26\/googling-march-madness-still-defaults-to-mens-games\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Googling \u2018March Madness\u2019 still defaults to men\u2019s games - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: Sweet Sixteen games in this year\u2019s March Madness tip off tonight and tomorrow \u2014 all exciting games (like reigning national champions Stanford vs. Maryland) and one that is going to be deeply stressful for me personally (Connecticut vs. Indiana \u2014 go Huskies). 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