Google gives users a permanent gift -- free Pac-Man

Computerworld - Were you one of the many people happily playing free Pac-Man on Google's doodle last Friday?

Well, if you were, you're going to be happy to learn that Google has decided to make the Pac-Man games available without charge to users -- permanently.

Last Friday and Saturday, Google had celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Pac-Man's video game by making the first-ever playable Google doodle available to users on the Google landing page.

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"We've been overwhelmed -- but not surprised :) -- by the success of our 30th anniversary PAC-MAN doodle," wrote Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, in a blog post. "Due to popular demand, we're making the game permanently available."

Twitter users are joking about the blow that Google's free Pac-Man game will bring to office productivity -- on top of the consternation it gave some Firefox users last week.

"Right on. Google gives the gift of Pac-Man forever," wrote Seimyou.

And TheresaLM wrote, "google/pacman is awesome!"

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

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