What if It Were Obama Dancing? Google’s Interactive Pac-Man Game Cost Businesses $120 Million in Frittered Worker Productivity (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 11, 2010
Back in May, Google embedded an interactive Pac-Man game on its homepage (below are two screenshots, not interactive) to celebrate the classic arcade game’s 30th anniversary:
Screenshot 1 of interactive Google Pac-Man doodle logo... celebrated video game
Screenshot 2 of interactive Google Pac-Man doodle logo
Not everyone is crowing about the advancement in online game-playing and time-frittering.
American businesses, during the worst recession in more than three decades, lost serious money because of Google’s Pac-Man tribute.
Soon after the Pac-Man home page launched on Google, NY Daily News reported the following… Google’s Pac-Man logo costs businesses $120 MILLION from lost worker productivity: study:
On Friday, when Google embedded a playable Pac-Man game in its logo to celebrate the game’s 30th anniversery, the Daily News predicted that productivity would take a serious hit as gaming enthusiasts stopped working to play.
According to a new study, we were right.
RescueTime, a company that helps businesses analyze how workers spend time on the job, took a random sample of its users and found that:
* Workers distracted by Google Pac-Man cost businesses a whopping 4.82 million hours of work — an estimated loss of $120,483,800 (assumes the average Google user had a cost of $25/hour).
* That $120 million sum is more than the combined earnings of all Google employees — including company founders Larry Page and Serge Brin — for six weeks.
RescueTime also estimates that the average user spent 36 seconds more on Google on Friday than on an average day — an uptick apparently caused by online Pac-Man fever.
It could have been much worse, however.
Imagine how much more money could have been lost by American businesses if Google had created an interactive arcade game of Pres. Obama golfing… or dancing… or wolfing down cheeseburgers.
For those clueless, still-employed Obama supporters who don’t realize how dang lucky they are to still have a job in Obama’s failed, plunging economy, the amount of worker productivity dollars wasted could have been staggering.
Video encore of Obama dancing the night away in the White House…
Hey, Crude: Barack Obama & Paul McCartney
Barack and his beloved cheeseburger... paradise (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
About the author
If only Google would invent an online game to distract 0, American productivity could recover.
Hi Vicki,
Did you see this poll?
http://weaselzippers.us/2010/07/09/poll-55-of-likely-voters-think-socialist-is-an-accurate-description-of-obama/
For the first time, I have hope that the American people are catching on.
In spite of the best efforts of the MSM, the Marxist is out of the bottle.
Thank you for the link, Larry – I’ve not yet popped over to Weasel Zippers this morning, but will most definitely check it out.
This poll gives a smidgeon of hope.
Love your “the Marxist is out of the bottle” line – may steal it in the future… mwhahahahaha.
All yours, Vicki!
variation: The Commie is out of the bottle.
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