Googlology: Week 1 Results

The first weekend and the first two rounds of 2008 NCAA tournament play is in the books, and now it's time to see how Google did. 

Round of 64

Winners predicted by Google (incorrect predictions in red, correct upset predictions in green):

Georgia, Kansas, Michigan State, Kentucky, Purdue, Kent State, Pittsburgh, Stanford, USC, Duke, Washington State, BYU, Cal State Fullerton, Arizona, Notre Dame, UCLA, Tennessee, Davidson, Miami, Western Kentucky, Butler, Georgetown, Texas, Connecticut, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Siena, Oregon, Indiana, Louisville, Clemson, and Memphis.

Overall accuracy: 21/32 = 66%

Upset prediction accuracy: 3/8 = 37.5%

Round of 32

Winners predicted by Google (incorrect predictions in red, correct upset predictions in green):

Duke, Wisconsin, Purdue, Notre Dame, Stanford, Kansas, Pittsburgh, UCLA, Siena, Miami, Butler, San Diego, Davidson, Memphis, Oklahoma, and North Carolina

Overall accuracy: 7/16 = 43.75%

Upset prediction accuracy: 1/3 = 33%

Analysis

Interestingly, Google did quite well predicting the outcome of the first round games, even picking up some of the upsets. Overall though, Google barely broke 50% picking 28 of 48 correctly. But how did Google do against some very knowledgeable bloggers? Over at burntorangenation.com PB correctly picked 33 out of 48, getting 5 more correct than Google, and AW picked 36 out of 48, getting 8 more correct than Google. 

Verdict

After the first weekend of the tournament mankind can rest easy for a few more days knowing that we aren't going to get Matrixed any time soon. Here's the scoreboard:

1. Smart Blogger People: 34.5/48 = 72%

2. Google: 28/48 = 58%