Due to overwhelming popularity, Google has announced that its interactive 30th anniversary Pac-Man doodle has earned a permanent spot on Google.com. From now on, whenever you need a Pac-Man fix just point your browser to Google.com/pacman and you can enjoy the search giant's version of this iconic video game any time you like.
While you've been able to find online versions of Pac-Man for years, Google users were thrilled to find a working version of the video game designed as Google's logo on Friday.
Google posted the home page doodle in celebration of Pac-Man's 30th anniversary, and the game was only supposed to remain available for 48 hours. But enthusiastic user feedback to "Pac-Google" inspired the search giant to rethink its plans.
Numerous sites popped up offering free downloads of Google's Pac-Man for those who wanted to keep their own copy once Google took the game offline.
Twitter users cracked jokes about how Google had killed U.S. productivity on Friday by putting the game (including all 256 levels) across the screens of millions of office workers. There were even suggestions that Google's JavaScript-based Pac-Man was a subtle jab at Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
When Namco and Midway games introduced Pac-Man to North America in 1980 it quickly became a fixture in American popular culture. Pac-Man inspired numerous video game spin-offs, board games, lunch boxes, a Saturday morning cartoon and several versions for home video game systems.
Despite the overwhelming user reaction to Google's 30th anniversary doodle, I have no doubt Pac-Man fever will start receding over the next few days.
But never fear, once this version of Pac-Man is forgotten, I also have no doubt it will live on as fodder for those always popular articles detailing Google's best Easter Eggs of all time.