Is Google counting down to 2010 or something more important?
Google is a company that has grown from nothing to being the driving force behind the Web. Without it the Web would be a less signposted, less useful place with no true search giant. So, with that in mind, why does the company spend so much of its time messing with the minds of us simple folk?
For a company the size of Google you’d think its considerable workforce would have enough to do without the fun and games it seems to come up with on a regular basis. Here is a company that is world-renowned for its search engine, regularly acquires big sites such as YouTube, and always has a few new features and initiatives in development.
And yet it also likes to have some fun.
September of this year saw Google invoke mass debate around the blogosphere when it unveiled a mysterious new logo. Another followed, along with some strange codes on Twitter. The mystery was eventually uncovered to be a commemoration of H.G. Wells’ 143rd birthday. In the end the reality was less exciting than the chase, but the fact there was a chase in the first place makes me love Google.
And now they’re at it again.
This time the game is a little simpler, at least on first sight. If you visit any of the English-language versions of the Google homepage and hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky’ button then a countdown timer flashes up. It’s counting down in seconds and appears to be set to reach zero around the new year. However, as The Guardian notes, the timer is the same across a number of timezones, so either there’s more to it or it’s lazy engineering.
The chance are high this is purely a countdown to the beginning of the new year. But you never quite know with Google. It could be a countdown to a new product or feature but no one seems to have heard of anything being on the horizon that would fit.
So is Google just messing with us all for a laugh or does this countdown timer signify something more? I’ll guess we’ll find out in 14,69880 seconds (at the time of writing).
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July 12th, 2011
I am working on two new websites these days and IAW really saved me a lot of time generating the content for me!