Google's playable Les Paul guitar doodle cost businesses around the world £166m in lost productivity

The Google guitar doodle marking Les Paul's birthday last week cost the world £166million in lost productivity.



The late guitar pioneer was celebrated on what would have been his 96th birthday with his own playable doodle.



Anyone logging onto the Google homepage on June 9 and 10 would have seen the authentic-sounding doodle above the search box and could have strummed away using either their mouse or keyboard.



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The company spent just £9,300 on the design but, according to website Extreme Tech, this small investment ended up costing a staggering £166million as office workers took time off to play the interactive 'guitar'.

Workers spent a total of 10.7million hours distracted by the doodle, the weblog said.

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Google's Guitar Logo Plays An Encore

Feature Lets Visitors Record 30-Second Songs By Strumming Chords



(CNN) -- Internet procrastinators got a second day to improvise virtual guitar tunes, thanks to the popularity of Google's homepage guitar logo.

The "doodle," as Google refers to its one-off logo designs, featured a six-string guitar, which let visitors record 30-second songs by strumming chords with a flick of the mouse.

Google posted the widget in honor of electric-guitar guru Les Paul's 96th birthday Thursday. Paul died in 2009 at age 94.

"Due to popular demand, we're leaving the Les Paul doodle up in the U.S. for an extra day," Google wrote via Twitter. "Thanks for jamming with us!"

Remember the interactive Pac-Man doodle from last year? It was such a hit that Google gave it a permanent site. It's unclear whether the Les Paul tribute will get the same treatment.

Whether it was 30 seconds of random strumming or a complicated cover, Google users have come up with a catalog of original songs since Thursday.

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Baidu and Google Celebrate Duanwu Festival With Doodles

Call it Duanwu, Dragon Boat or Dumpling festival: Both search giants, Baidu and Google are celebrating the festival today with doodles on their front pages.

Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China are having public holidays today. Sadly, there is no day off here in Singapore. But as Chinese, we do still celebrate the festival with our families, mostly by just eating dumplings together.

The festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar on which the Chinese calendar is based.


Besides eating dumplings, the festival is also a day for dragon boat races. The video below, with more than 400,000 views, provides a good overview on the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. If you’re interested to learn more, check out the Dragon Boat Festival page on Wikipedia.


Have a great Dumpling Day! 端午快乐!

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Google close to settling drug ad probe

Google is close to settling a federal criminal inquiry into its acceptance of advertisements from companies selling unlicensed pharmaceuticals, according to a person involved in the case.
The leading search engine disclosed this week that it had reserved $500m to resolve an unspecified US justice department probe into its advertising practices, with speculation quickly turning toward counterfeit and unapproved drugs.
The Wall Street Journal reported late on Thursday that the pending deal would resolve an investigation of drug ads by the US justice department, with participation of the Food and Drug Administration and the federal prosecutor in Rhode Island. A person familiar with thematter confirmed the talks to theFinancial Times.
The justice department, FDA and Google all declined to comment.
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo havebeen changing their policies under pressure from licensed pharmacies, major drug makers and the FDA to do more to filter out ads that tout prescription medications, often ostensibly from Canadian companies but manufactured in China, India and elsewhere.
Many of the drugs advertised are counterfeit, raising intellectual property issues. The FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administrationhave also complained about a public health threat, because some US consumers have died from drugs bought online without a prescription.
The issue has been complicated by varying international laws. It is illegal to import unlicensed drugs into the US, but not illegal for Canadian firms to sell them. Companies that manufacture the knock-offs may not be violating the laws of the places where theyare based.
The search engines were thoughtto have legal risk. A section of the1996 Communications Decency Act protects internet service companies from being held accountable for virtually any content provider by users or advertisers, but there is an exception for federal criminal cases. The search engines in 2007paid $31.5m to resolve justice department objections to ads run for online gambling firms.
Online drug sales have been one of the largest sources of income for cybercrime gangs. A large percentage of unwanted commercial e-mails touts such wares, and viruses often steer infected personal computers to such websites.

Paul McCartney molesto con google

El hombre, me refiero a sir Paul, no quiere que el servicio Street Map de Google, enseñe su casa a posibles compradores, o ¿será por los cacos?.
No es por criticar, pero este ex beatle, se ha vuelto un abuelete cascarrabias. Ahora bien, libras tiene más que la reina Isabel. Está forrao el abuelo oye.

Al descubrir que su casa en St. John's Wood, al Norte de la ciudad de Londres, había sido fotografiada y aparecía en Google Maps, Paul McCartney se mostró muy preocupado por su seguridad personal, según informaciones de 'Hollywood.com' recogidas por Europa Press.
Leer MÁS:http://www.europapress.es/gente/noticia-paul-mccartney-no-quiere-casa-salga-google-maps-20090523120336.html