'Google a Day' Trivia Game Openly Encourages Cheating

If you turn to Google (News - Alert) every time you are stumped, this game's for you. The search engine giant made a quiet entrance into the gaming space on Monday by launching Google a Day, a daily trivia game that encourages users to plug their queries into Google to find the answers.

The once-daily puzzle will be hosted at agoogleaday.com and will also appear in the New York Times, just above the crossword puzzle. The game features a single, creatively worded trivia question that can be solved with a clever mind or advanced search skills.

Just above the trivia question is a modified version of Google's search engine that excludes real-time updates to avoid spoiling the game. Users who are stumped can try out different search strings to help them find the answer, which Google will eventually reveal the next day on the website and in the paper. Users will also be given the search string that would have best helped them find the answer.

Similar to traditional crossword puzzles, the trivia questions will get more difficult each day. Users can share the questions with their network using a wide range of social media tools and can even follow Google a Day via Facebook (News - Alert) or Twitter.

"As the world of information continues to explode, we hope A Google a Day triggers your imagination and helps you discover all the types of questions you can ask Google—and get an answer," Dan Russell, a User Experience researcher at Google, noted in a recent blog post.

While the game sounds rather harmless, some believe that Google is using it for more than just entertainment purposes. Venture Beat's Tom Cheredar speculates that Google will leverage the trivia game to aid in the data collection process.

"Probably the most obvious reason for creating a game like this is that it reveals new data on how users are searching for ultra specific pieces of information, and in ways that were previously only discovered by deduction of whatever data was available," he wrote. "Having users seek out predetermined results…allows Google to reverse engineer how they’re currently tracking and evaluating data."

Either way, Google a Day sounds like a fun way to burn a few minutes.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Janice McDuffee