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Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Graphics are Everything - Time Waster

Graphics are EverythingGraphics are Everything is a tongue-in-cheek name for a game that is anything but fancy graphically. The game involves bare-bones wireframe shapes on a plain white screen. You control a circle, and can make it bounce by clicking and dragging it in a direction. Releasing the mouse will send the ball flying in the direction of the cursor.

The goal of the game is to collect certain shapes while avoiding others. There are also special shapes that will interact with your ball by making it more or less bouncy, and other behaviors.

For such a simple-looking game, Graphics are Everything actually contains compelling gameplay, which I suppose is the point. It can be addictive trying to manage to writhe your ball through a small gap to successfully collect triangles or large circles while avoiding the squares. I realize how boring that sounds written out, but Graphics are Everything is worth a try.

Filed under: Web services, Google, Search

Google Squared launches, puts search results in a grid


Google Squared, the new search tool from Google Labs, puts search results into a convenient spreadsheet format designed to help you get the basic facts about whatever you're searching for without clicking through to too many different websites. Search for "horror films," for example, and you'll get a list of movies with info like Author, Director, Cast, and Running Time. It's a great layout that's easy to read at a glance, but the results still need a lot of work.

I tried a search that I thought was right up Google Squared's alley: "current New York Times bestsellers," and the results were a jumble of categories, but no books. "Current box office" returned some recent movies, and some old ones that did really well when they came out. These are the kinds of searches Google Squared could hit a home run with, but it doesn't.

The example searches prove how well Google Squared could really work. Check out some terms like "roller coasters" and "U.S. Presidents" to see some nice glimmers of potential. The ability to customize your own square when no results are returned will also probably lead to much better results.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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