Google, Nike Play Beautifully Together

Google and Nike kicked off a collaborative community website exclusively for soccer fanatics. Signing up for Joga.com automatically takes visitors through a series of steps for setting up a blog within, a la MySpace, where they can upload photos and videos.

The term “joga” was taken from a Portuguese expression “Joga bonito,” meaning “play beautiful,” says Google software engineer Pedram Keyani.

It is “a phrase that symbolizes both any football player’s desire to embody the grace of the game and our goal to offer a community site that helps promotes the sheer fun, skill, sportsmanship and community spirit that make football truly the world’s favorite game,” said Keyani.

Google lent its search technology to the site to help members seek out content, community information, and player information. Those with a personalized Google account already, like Gmail, can gain access immediately.

The community inside works like many social networking sites, utilizing friend requests, alrets, and instant messaging.

If Joga members get really lucky, podcast phenom SoccerGirl will sign up. We’d link to SoccerGirl if she weren’t perpetually sans vtements while podcasting and seemingly never actually talks about soccer-well, she might but we’re not really listening.

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