Oscars 2013: Google unveils all-in-one site for Academy Awards
Organizers of this weekend’s 85th Academy Awards have partnered with Google to create a landing page that puts all of the information about this year’s nominees in one place.
The site -- google.com/Oscars -- went live Tuesday night and was released along with a video compilation of the year’s top movie moments, similar in style to the popular Zeitgeist videos the search engine releases each year.
The Oscars site incorporates a variety of Google services -- including YouTube, Google Maps and Google Hangouts -- and provides an interactive chart showing which films and actors would take home Oscars were the awards handed out based on online search frequency.
The portal also includes information about the nominated films and the actors themselves, and allows visitors the option to watch the movies’ trailers and see local showtimes.
“We see this really as a destination site,” said Roya Soleimani, a Google spokeswoman. “We thought it would be great to have one place where you can come to do anything from find movie showtimes to see what the nominees are for best picture.”
The partnership is the first time that the search engine giant has rolled out a special site for an award show, but is reminiscent of a similar site launched during the 2012 election.
Other features include a Google Map that shows where many of the nominated films were shot, a Google Hangout feature that allows users to video chat next to the image of an Academy Award and film their “own acceptance speech” and a yet-to-be-launched theater that will allow virtual tours of the Dolby Theatre.
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