February 1st, 2007
Is Google TV a Hoax?
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Last Friday a YouTuber by the name of ‘Mark Erickson’ from ‘Infinite Solutions‘ posted a video claiming to reveal an easter egg in Gmail that unlocked an invite to a yet to be announced Google beta service called Google TV. Mark told viewers they could access high-quality US network TV shows as part of a private test by sending yourself an email and then logging in and out of Gmail multiple times until a TV icon appears in the Gmail logo.
After Google Blogoscoped called Mark’s video a hoax (via TechCrunch and Metafilter), Mark posted another video substantiating his claims and asking viewers to watch his other videos as proof of his credibility -
The clip was viewed more than 100,000 times over the weekend, causing thousands of people to log in and out of their email accounts, some hundreds of times, in a desperate attempt to access the service. Some people have posted videos in response to Mark’s videos claiming that they have indeed got Google TV -
If fake, the video would be one of the biggest ever internet hoaxes and a textbook lesson in viral communication.
