Google now lets you play solitaire and tic-tac-toe directly in its search results

[midian182]

Most people enjoy the occasional break from important tasks, such as work, to do some pointless internet browsing. But now you can take your procrastination to even higher levels, as Google is letting you play two classic games directly in its search results.

To play solitaire or tic-tac-toe, simply go to Google Search on mobile or desktop and type in the name of either game, which will make it appear above the search results. As it’s all done within search, both are pretty bare-bones (not that you could make a very advanced version of tic-tac-toe) but solitaire has a few small features: timer, score, move counter, and two difficulty levels.

Tic-tac-toe lets you pick your symbol and whether you want to play against the AI or a friend. There are three difficulty settings, with an “impossible” level for masochists or anyone who’s convinced they’ll be able to get the better of a machine.

Google has brought a couple of other ways to waste time into its search. Need to make an important decision but don’t have a coin nearby to flip? Just type in “flip a coin” and it’ll happen virtually. Additionally, you can now listen to audio of animal noises by typing in “what does a pig sound like?” for example. There aren’t very many samples available right now, but more will doubtlessly be added to the list.

While there are hundreds of websites just an extra click away where you can play both games, listen to animal noises, and flip coins, being able to do so without leaving the search results feels surprisingly satisfying and will likely destroy productivity in offices worldwide.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66110-google-now-you-play-solitaire-tic-tac-toe.html

 

[psycros]

I'm tempted to say that Google is officially out of ideas. But are they? Perhaps this is an early test case of a possible course they intend to follow: instant apps everywhere, with everything made as thin-client as possible (with necessary local elements downloaded to a temporary cache). This is already coming in Android 7.0 and probably desktop Chrome as well eventually. And, now that I think about it, what that really means is that Android apps are probably about to become available on every platform via Chrome. Its been talked about for a while now and we know that Google is killing off Chrome apps that run only within their browser. The timing on all these things is far too convenient. Frankly, I have little interest in re-downloading the same web applets every time I invoke them, and it would certainly do our data plans no favors. I hope this is all just positioning for the coming 5G era in which mobile data *should* be sold by speed rather than volume consumed. Data caps will have to go extinct at some point in the next few years - there's no way around it, particularly if apps-on-demand becomes the norm.

 

[Kibaruk]

Ooooh bring me my freecell and I'm so in!

 

[alabama man]

Doesn't work. Damn

 

[j05hh]

I want hearts!

 

[J spot]

I'm tempted to say that Google is officially out of ideas. But are they? Perhaps this is an early test case of a possible course they intend to follow: instant apps everywhere, with everything made as thin-client as possible (with necessary local elements downloaded to a temporary cache). This is already coming in Android 7.0 and probably desktop Chrome as well eventually. And, now that I think about it, what that really means is that Android apps are probably about to become available on every platform via Chrome. Its been talked about for a while now and we know that Google is killing off Chrome apps that run only within their browser. The timing on all these things is far too convenient. Frankly, I have little interest in re-downloading the same web applets every time I invoke them, and it would certainly do our data plans no favors. I hope this is all just positioning for the coming 5G era in which mobile data *should* be sold by speed rather than volume consumed. Data caps will have to go extinct at some point in the next few years - there's no way around it, particularly if apps-on-demand becomes the norm.

Or it's just something that they always do for promotion, putting games like with Pac Man, or celebrating something different every day by adding a simple functionality or animation on their front page that requires no effort. This Tic Tac Toe thing should no be put in the same universe with actual products that actually have millions of dollars in funding.