Google Pacman cost the economy $120 million

Google Pacman cost the economy $120 million with over 4 million work hours lost and thanks to 500 unique visitors at the time Google put up its Pacman Doodle.

We saw how Google Pacman took the world by storm a few days ago. I think everyone reading this post probably spent some time playing Pacman on Google’s Pacman Doodle which probably has not gone down to become legendary. Even I spent a bit of time and it quite refreshingly brought back nostalgia of 386 Processor computers with their limited storage and processing ability. 😀

But what did this unexpected time off with Pacman cost the economy?

Here are some mind boggling numbers of the cost that economies endured because of a simple Doodle from Google.

  • Over all Google had 504,703,000 unique visitors when the Pacman Doodle went up.
  • This over all amounted to 4.8 million work hours being lost to Google as people ended up on an average spending 36 seconds instead of the usual 4 seconds on Google search.
  • So the total cost to our economies is about $120 Million and with that money we could have hired the entire Google workforce of 19,835 for about six weeks.

The response to Google’s Pacman has been so phenomenal that they have decided to create a page where it is available at any time. So now you can play Pacman at Google.com/pacman

So tell us what you think about Google Pacman’s effect? Was it really a waste of money or was it actually a great way to unwind and put up a smile on your face before your day began? Do let me know through your comments.

Link: Rescue Time