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Soccer lovers followed coverage of the 2010 World Cup with Yahoo! Search tools and shortcuts, and today we bring you some of the tournament’s top search trends on Yahoo!.

Throughout the first week of play, U.S. fans were eager to know more about the World Cup opening ceremonies, the World Cup schedule and World Cup brackets. Even the venues were of interest, with queries about 2010 World Cup stadiums up more than 400% from the week before.

In week two, searches for World Cup standings were up over 425% from the first week. During the same week, action on the field may have inspired Yahoo! users to take the sport outside, as searches for soccer cleats increased by more than 60%. By June 20, devoted fans were already looking forward to the next World Cup, sending the number of searches for the 2014 World Cup location up by more than 45% from the previous week.

Interest in individual players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, and Robinho remained intense throughout the tournament, while searches for particular teams surged as the final games approached. When Germany began its climb to third place in week three, queries about the team saw a triple-digit increase.

Games aside, other notable World Cup searches included:
• The vuvuzela: Searchers were curious about the sound of a vuvuzela, how to blow a vuvuzela and “where to buy a vuvuzela”
• Soccer WAGs (wives and girlfriends), including team USA star Landon Donovan’s ex, Bianca Kajlich, Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart’s wife, Sylvie and celebrity soccer spouse Victoria Beckham
• Paul the Octopus and his predictions for the finals

As the field narrowed to the final two teams, users had questions about members of the Spanish squad as well as queries concerning the Dutch team’s distinctive orange jerseys. When the hard-fought championship game moved into extra time, there was a spike in searches for soccer overtime rules. After Spain’s Andreas Iniesta scored the game-winning goal, users wanted to know more about his t-shirt tribute to his late teammate Dani Jarque. An uptick in searches for FIFA World Cup 2010 results marked the close of the event.

Can’t get enough of the World Cup? Check out what users searched for on their smart phones over at the Yahoo! Mobile Blog, including global search trends.

Mireille Majoor
Yahoo! Search