Technology

The quickest way to keep up on the World Cup may be Google. People in the U.S. searching for countries playing in the World Cup will see, at the top of the results, links to highlight videos from the country’s most recent match. Clicking takes users to the website of ESPN, the exclusive domestic English-language broadcaster of the world’s premier soccer tournament. The first-of-its-kind partnership between ESPN and Google gives Google  an edge among competitors  Yahoo  and  Bing on World Cup searches. All three search engines are trying to make it easy to get the latest scores and scheduling details by typing in a country’s name or even just “World Cup.” But watching the early-round games, most of which are in the afternoon or early evening in the U.S., is difficult for those without access to ESPN. Watching the highlights doesn’t require any television subscription, and ESPN said that the highlight clips will show up on search results “as they happe...