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January 28, 2007

Google TV - An Elaborate Hoax

Michael Arrington

176 comments »

A heavily produced YouTube video from Mark Erickson at “Infinite Solutions” shows users how to get in on the super-secret (and non existent) Google TV beta. It involves sending yourself an email and then logging in and out of Gmail multiple times until a tv icon appears in the Gmail logo. In the comments to the video, some users have tried logging in and out of Gmail hundreds of times without it working.

This is almost certainly a fake, as Google Blogoscoped reports. Erickson then posted a second video to prove the authenticity and saying that Google had increased the login requirements “substantially”. A+ for effort and originality. Both videos are below.

Update: This just gets better and better. New video found via CenterNetworks “confirming” the accuracy of the hoax. This guy says he got it to work on his 114th login, after copying numerous links on the Gmail settings page.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 28th, 2007 at 4:56 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. DanLin.net - Google TV - Secret Beta or Hoax?

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  2. 煎蛋 » Google TV - An Awesome Prank

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    January 29th, 2007 at 2:38 am

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  10. GoogleTV is really coming soon! « Gizmoojo!

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  12. Google TV | Poltrona.TV

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Comments

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  1. Haochi

    January 28th, 2007 at 6:02 am

    It worked! After 1000 sign ins and outs, 300 browser restart, and 25 computer restart! OMG, Google TV is AWE-Some! :)-

  2. Michael Arrington

    January 28th, 2007 at 6:07 am

    yep, me too. that 1,000 logins is the magic number. :-)

  3. Stu

    January 28th, 2007 at 6:43 am

    Whoa, for me it worked after 1243 logins, man, am I happy now.

  4. bones

    January 28th, 2007 at 6:48 am

    1000+ logins???!!! I’ll just wait for it to come out for the public’s use.

  5. Enblogopedia

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:01 am

    You guys have a lot of time!!

  6. Pascal

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:05 am

    *lol* =)
    Very well done.

    EDIT: Really worked after only 1001 logins and sending mail to support@google.com :o

  7. Guk

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:05 am

    What a waste of time…

  8. Emc2

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:22 am

    How come so many people believe that this video is real and even though they obviously did NOT manage to use a nonexistent service they say it worked after 1,000,000 logins or something? Time wasters! Is it some kind of revenge against those who - wisely - didn’t believe to such a hoax?

  9. Robert Dewey

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:24 am

    What’s next?

    “Just send your password to googletv@hotmail.com and we’ll hook you up”

    “I’m with AOL, please send your username and password to aol_guide69@yahoo.com to continue your service”

    Ah, the good ol’ days.

  10. radzio

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:25 am

    I was trying to do this but after 50 logins I gave up :P

  11. SocialEngineeringIsBad

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:35 am

    How is this anything but a DoS attack?

  12. Brad

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:37 am

    I’m not even going to try this. :)

  13. temolate

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:38 am

    simple way to tell that this _is_ a fake:

    in windows, push win+r to open a run dialog. Then, type cmd to open up a dos prompt. From here, type “ping tv.google.com”. This will take a minute and it should say “100% packet loss” towards the bottom.

    in linux or on the mac os, open a terminal window and type “ping -c 3 tv.google.com”. This will take a minute and should say “100% packet loss” towards the bottom.

    The reason this happens is because tv.google.com is not a valid subdomain of google.com, therefore, in the parts where it shows him going there, it must not be real.

    I really wish this service was real, but alas it is not.

  14. staci b.

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:40 am

    this was all over yesterday…. amazing that this made digg home page when it was already there 2x yesterday. gotta love digg!

  15. Philipp Lenssen

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:42 am

    From what it looks like, Google doesn’t even have an intranet subdomain named tv.corp.google.com… they do have video2.corp.google.com, though, so that leaves some place for rumors :)

  16. Emc2

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:44 am

    Yeah, I think the guy tweaked his HOSTS file to link “tv.google.com” to a fake website he set up for this video. It’s an amazing work, but nonetheless a fake.

  17. Me

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:48 am

    Did you really log in and log out 1000 times or did you write some program to do it for you repeatedly? If so, what did you use?

  18. Raquel

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:48 am

    Very clever I have to say. The second video made me laugh for the analogyhe uses: “The Google TV easter egg has exploded like a Romulan warbird” - just genius

  19. Free TV Online faked?

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:53 am

    obviously a fake, but it’s pretty obvious that google would never get into that business.

  20. RD3k

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:54 am

    http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/n.....2&ct=5

  21. eric

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:55 am

    why don’t google use the technology as TVkoo? This P2P live TV, no breaks, no buffering during playing, very good quality - 350k video, much stable than youtube.

  22. Anshul

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:04 am

    Screams fake. No business sense for Google to get into this.

  23. StephenC_IRL

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:06 am

    wow took me 1337 login attempts, it rocks,

    this guy must have done an awful lot of work with DNS spoofing software

  24. JaredB

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:08 am

    Oh good lord, people. The people who fell for it aren’t the stupid ones. It’s the people who actually have to POINT OUT that this is a fake, or that those who tried it are “stoopid” who are the morons. GET AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE. PUT DOWN THE MOUNTAIN DEW. Take a walk, breathe in, breathe out.

  25. Emmanuel Muñoz

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:08 am

    i’ve tried this about 54 times now and its not working, as much as i wanted it to be real im starting to think its all bs.

  26. Wade

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:31 am

    Totallly awesome. That guy is funny as hell. Why doesn’t SNL get someone like him ?

  27. Mark

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:36 am

    This Video from Mark Erickson ist also hilarious:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8Wi7XRXCA

  28. John

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:42 am

    Great stuff….now Google knows how to launch their next real product….this guy could be their mac vs. pc entrance into real TV ads. What would really be great is if some local TV station “tech expert” picked up the story and had 100,000 people from the middle of Iowa logging in and out of their accounts for hours on end.

    Isaac
    http://www.monomachines.com

  29. Gonzague Dambricourt

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:48 am

    This is very well done , especially the second video.

    As an user said, it is surely an use of the HOSTS file . However , the quality of the fake is good

  30. Aj Collins

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:52 am

    Notice how the Google Video page loads right when he clicks it but it took him awhile to load the Yahoo homepage. Defiantly a hoax.

  31. Emc2

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:11 am

    Well that might be just a caching issue.

  32. macewan

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:16 am

    Yeah, I had logged out and then in over 628 times before realizing that I had forgotten to archive the message first. Boy did I feel silly. I back up to 593 times but need sleep before continuing. Wish me luck.

  33. Stu

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:20 am

    How can you guys say it does not work!!!! You haven’t tried it! It’s really there!

  34. bint

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:27 am

    Right.

    The video is stupid and so is everyone who tried this. Review the videos, note the URL he claims to be watching; http://tv.google.com/

    And what do googles nameservers (ns3.google.com) have to say about this dns record?

    No A records exist for tv.google.com, and tv.google.com does not exist.

  35. rptcalyptos

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:34 am

    He can publish tv.google.com all he wants. Doesn’t mean the domain isn’t masked or a forgery!

  36. Jorgo

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:35 am

    Man, they told me that beta was super hush-hush and now it’s been cracked? I know some Fox executives who are not gonna be happy, no siree bob!

  37. Jim

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:43 am

    Great parody of computer chronicles.

  38. Richard Stallman's Fan

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:43 am

    How can you believe a guy who uses MS Windows + MS iExplorer?

  39. kmac

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:48 am

    For all those claiming it works, prove it. Show us a screenshot.

  40. themoose

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:50 am

    http://www.televee.com/ works for most TV episodes… this is obviously a fake :P

  41. Mr. Drano

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am

    If only people spent about 1/1000th of their time staying abreast of public policy as they do on this nonsense, maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today.

  42. roberto

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:57 am

    zomg i have been trying since a while and i cant get it can someone help me step by step i think i got it wrong plz thnx

  43. Scott

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:16 am

    Who wastes all that time to make a fake. Do something productive with your time.

  44. Ronald Lewis

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:17 am

    Google *will* be entering the TV business.

  45. Jon Zencovich

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:22 am

    I didn’t try the login thing, but I did realize that the subdomain is non-existent. (tv.google.com)

    HOWEVER: It is possible that the subdomain is “hiding”. It is possible that the server is instructed to drop all packets not coming from a specific domain, such as from within Gmail. I tried sending myself a link but It didn’t work.

    The cool thing about computers is that you can fake a multitude of things. It would probably take me one hour of coding to be able to fake “Google TV”. A simple edit of the Hosts file, a nice Ajaxy/Googley site….. and we’re off. On the other side of the fence, there’s many difference ways I could hide my subdomain and make it look as dead from people that I don’t want to let in. Could have some sort of URL referrer block, even go as far as denying all but a certain IP or MAC address (from trusted beta users I suppose). There’s soo many different ways this can all be orchastrated.

    I do not believe Google would go to those lengths to hide such a service (perhaps the major networks behind GoogleTV would though), so I am inclined to believe this is a linkbait scheme, and nothing else.

    Time will Tell

    –Jon Z

  46. Jay Greenberg

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:25 am

    You fools, of course it’s real.

    Not to mention the fact that it was inevitable anyway - Didn’t *you* see it coming??

    Check the youtube.com responses to Mark Erickson’s videos. Other people have posted today with their proof as well.

    Welcome to Web 2.0, Enjoy.

  47. dave

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:31 am

    working on my end. must have been limited to the first 100 users.

  48. Jason Frick

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:33 am

    I actually got it on the *first try*!

  49. roberto

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:52 am

    no way you lucky bastard

  50. stevemarcus

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:52 am

    i didnt need 1000tries. i just went to youtube and wrote in google television.

  51. Florian Cervenka

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:54 am

    I use “Google Apps for Your Domain” and it workes fine for me too. What I really find cool is that the 7th season of 24 is already available on there.

  52. Jay

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:55 am

    I wonder if this guy could help out over at Yacht Rock?

  53. Josh

    January 28th, 2007 at 11:11 am

    You can tell its fake and the guys an idiot because he is using internet explorer

  54. Chris tompkinson

    January 28th, 2007 at 11:13 am

    this looks god damn awesome even if it is a hoax, hopefully gogle will step up and either release this soon or get to doing it

  55. RickRussellTX

    January 28th, 2007 at 11:21 am

    “Time wasters! Is it some kind of revenge against those who - wisely - didn’t believe to such a hoax? ”

    Only somebody who didn’t have access to Google TV would say that.

  56. Eric Jackson

    January 28th, 2007 at 11:38 am

    Mike: Why are comments 19 and 32 still up?

  57. oldn00b

    January 28th, 2007 at 11:41 am

    @temolate

    you know, if a server rejects your ping requests doesn’t mean it’s offline.

    It’s pretty easy to set a firewall to reject ITPM request …. come on!

  58. oldn00b

    January 28th, 2007 at 11:43 am

    lol, I mean ICMP :p (darn alcohol)

  59. Read & Google the Credits

    January 28th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

    First of all, I can’t believe anyone has actually wasted time trying this. But, just to provide one more bit of evidence that this is fake:

    The credits of the video mention Fatal Farm. According to their website, Fatal Farm is “a bicoastal group of filmmakers founded in 2005 by Zachary Johnson and Jeffrey Max.” Go to http://www.fatalfarm.com and you can watch their other videos. This is obviously a prank for publicity. And a darn hilarious one, at that.

  60. Cody Mays

    January 28th, 2007 at 12:14 pm

    This prank is going to go down as a fairly famous one. A++ for the amount of people he convinced.

  61. neen

    January 28th, 2007 at 12:15 pm

    Running the “ping -c 3 tv.google.com” in OS X results in 0% packet loss. The domain IS VALID.

    Try it yourself!

  62. Bolen

    January 28th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

    Google is great :)

  63. seo-ranter

    January 28th, 2007 at 12:28 pm

    are you guys serious…1000 + logins?

  64. Luis

    January 28th, 2007 at 12:45 pm

    support@gmail.com finally emailed me back. They’ve now implemented code which makes it easier to signup. Just raise your right palm to your web cam while Picasa is running to perform a fingerprint scan, while clicking login.

    Google TV is excellent! I love the gmail integration.

  65. it works!

    January 28th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    after weeks of trying I finally got it working! Hooray google :)
    don’t give up, just keep trying.

    p.s. my lucky login attempt was 34621st (or 34622nd) :(
    I wish you a better luck

  66. Bill

    January 28th, 2007 at 1:10 pm

    I got it on the first try too!

    How wild is that? And not just that, but I had 5 numbers in last night’s lottery - that’s like £150,000 - how fantastic does it get? And last week, I pulled THE most amazing blonde chick you’ve ever seen. My life is so great… don’t you just wish you were me?

  67. eddy ad

    January 28th, 2007 at 1:42 pm

    absolutely not believe…

  68. Mike

    January 28th, 2007 at 1:58 pm

    A poll entitled “Is Google TV real” is posted at http://www.vizuble.com

  69. cp

    January 28th, 2007 at 1:59 pm

    99% sure its a fake. Here is how, you look at the original video and the reply from google (gmail team). How the heck does it show that user (Gmail Team) as via the google chat clock icon thing next to the name.

  70. Zigire

    January 28th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

    Well I wont be wasting my time trying it!

  71. Guido

    January 28th, 2007 at 2:22 pm

    It’s a fake the guy is browsing Google TV from http://tv.google.com and that URL doesn’t exist

  72. Bolen

    January 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm

    too :(

  73. Andrew

    January 28th, 2007 at 2:30 pm

    Well duh, neen, pinging anything will work..

    Pinging gdsqgfdsggqgsd.google.com [208.67.219.41] with 32 bytes of data:

    Reply from 208.67.219.41: bytes=32 time=210ms TTL=47

  74. Raj Anand

    January 28th, 2007 at 3:00 pm

    Definately a Hoax!!! I’m not even gonna attempt signing out once for this :)

  75. Damien Stevens

    January 28th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

    The easiest way to know this is a fake? If you watch closely, the video shows tv.google.com as the hostname for this new service. Someone suggested pinging tv.google.com. Alas, it’s possible that they block ping. What’s not possible, it to hide the fact the DNS records exists or not.

    Don’t just trust me, Go See for yourself!:
    http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/.....amp;type=A

    You’ll see that is says:

    Response:
    No A records exist for tv.google.com, and tv.google.com does not exist.

    The complete post: http://www.damienmstevens.com/?p=27

  76. Florian Cervenka

    January 28th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    @Andrew..
    of course pinging gdsqgfdsggqgsd.google.com will work - didn’t you hear about the “gdsqgfdsggqgsd”-projekt yet?

  77. Florian Cervenka

    January 28th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    @Andrew..
    of course pinging gdsqgfdsggqgsd.google.com will work - didn’t you hear about the “gdsqgfdsggqgsd”-project yet?

  78. Michael Wales

    January 28th, 2007 at 3:47 pm

    This is definitely a hoax - this guy produces what could best be described as nerd comedy.

    See this video that explains how to increase your Wi-Fi signal by wrapping your cell phone in aluminum foil:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8Wi7XRXCA

  79. Fabrizio Asco

    January 28th, 2007 at 3:53 pm

    Changed my mind!

    I’ve got it!! I created a bot for signin’ in-out. After a while it enabled the url!!!! Search for ‘google tv’ youtube and see by yourselves! But its quite different from this video here

    Regards!!

  80. Joe

    January 28th, 2007 at 4:03 pm

    Looks fake to me

  81. lemon obrien

    January 28th, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    i love it. that guy is brilliant.

  82. PRoales

    January 28th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    What are you going to do if they turn out to be right and you have been running around screaming “liar, liar, liar” ?

  83. paul king

    January 28th, 2007 at 6:09 pm

    I’m not going to try it, but IF it is a fake, he certainly convinced gullible old me. I mean, he went to great lengths it seems to make something look like it worked for real. Guy seems to have at least some talent, least of which is getting 15 minutes of fame for fooling the masses.

    And yes, if this is a joke, it amounts to what I’d call a DoS attack.

  84. Patton

    January 28th, 2007 at 6:26 pm

    Mikey,

    Please get a real host. MT can not handle your traffic.

  85. Lyononline

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:10 pm

    So sad that it’s a fake! Come on Google….I want the TV on my GG account.

  86. phic

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:16 pm

    Hoax?? It worked for me the 3 rd [/4 th time i logged in]. I sent the mail yesterday, and today when i logged in to check my mail, i have it in my inbox!

  87. David Mackey

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:32 pm

    If it is a fake, its a very well conceived one. If it’s not - Google has taken the lead in the race. If they haven’t, they should take a lesson from Michael’s book.

  88. andy

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:54 pm

    if i dont find a bod by tomorrow ill write one….

  89. Steven Neff

    January 28th, 2007 at 7:59 pm

    The third video is also a hoax. The dudes email address is on the video website as Gary.Castle@gmail.com. The person who filmed the first two movies is Gary Castle as listed on the credits.

  90. nakiman

    January 28th, 2007 at 8:06 pm

    i got it after my one kabillionth login!

    go to hell assholes

  91. Brett

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:18 pm

    On the second “Infinite Solutions” video - watch the cursor movements and his hand, they don’t match up.

    AND they do an excellent job of trying to cover this discrepancy by only showing either his hand OR the cursor. It’s only very briefly when he’s going through the sign-up process that this is noticeable.

    He clearly has an edited video running on his computer while pretending to go through the sign-up process.

  92. Brett

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:27 pm

    To be more precise - focus on 0:47-0:49, the cursor starts moving up while his hand stays still.

  93. Don Wilson

    January 28th, 2007 at 9:42 pm

    Lol, I got it with one login.

    Let me make a video that looks like it was recorded in 1970 to prove it.

  94. Kent Brewster

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:33 pm

    Would someone who’s gotten this to work please right-click on the Google TV logo, copy the link to the image, and post it? If it comes from a Google domain … that’s pretty solid proof.

  95. Liam

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:38 pm

    Fake …
    Watch the 2nd video in slow motion when he clicks on the TV link. The screen suddenly flicks and the mouse jumps to the tab

  96. nexuspod

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:44 pm

    Too bad it’s fake. But everyone is really excited and looking forward for this. Maybe there should be a GoogleTv service from Google.

  97. Sunny

    January 28th, 2007 at 10:54 pm

    If Google TV is a hoax, THEN WHY DOES GOOGLE OWNS http://WWW.GOOGLETV.COM

    Domain Name: GOOGLETV.COM
    Registrar: EMARKMONITOR INC. DBA MARKMONITOR
    Whois Server: whois.markmonitor.com
    Referral URL: http://www.markmonitor.com
    Name Server: NS1.GOOGLE.COM
    Name Server: NS2.GOOGLE.COM
    Name Server: NS3.GOOGLE.COM
    Name Server: NS4.GOOGLE.COM
    Status: clientDeleteProhibited
    Status: clientTransferProhibited
    Status: clientUpdateProhibited
    Updated Date: 28-jan-2007
    Creation Date: 01-mar-2000
    Expiration Date: 01-mar-2008

  98. RenegadeLatino

    January 28th, 2007 at 11:12 pm

    If you watch the video linked in comment 79, he suggests wrapping an Ethernet cable around your cell phone then plugging that cable into your computer for better reception. In Erickson’s second Google tv video he’s got his cell phone wrapped in an Ethernet cable. You have got to love the consistency and commitment of this guy.

  99. loren

    January 28th, 2007 at 11:56 pm

    ha ha… the 7th season of 24… keep looking, it’s there!

  100. radish01001

    January 29th, 2007 at 1:13 am

    nail in the coffin.

    check it - Fatal Farms Vid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNNAZc5BU3Q

    Look familiar? Yeah, same dude that logged in 114 times.

    Done. Over.

    I’m just glad I didn’t try it before I read comments.

  101. JDenison

    January 29th, 2007 at 2:25 am

    That’s a pretty clever hoax

  102. Ben

    January 29th, 2007 at 3:37 am

    Yes, nice hoax :)

  103. DK

    January 29th, 2007 at 4:23 am

    The turnover time for new shows on this thing is great. I watched the new 30 Rock right after it aired. Awesome.

  104. Rhino

    January 29th, 2007 at 4:40 am

    I managed to get in after 100 or so logins (I lost count) but it took a while to locate Season 7 of 24 (google could do some work on the search interface here) - did anyone else notice that the last part of hour 23 seemed to be missing? Without it, you cannot work out (without giving away too much of the plot here) what Eleanor actually did with the RPM launcher…

    Confused
    London

  105. tonyd

    January 29th, 2007 at 4:45 am

    These videos are a hoax.

    Check out http://www.fatalfarm.com - this is the marketing company that produced these 3 videos. Look at the “contact” page, and notice the two pictures of the founders - they look oddly similar to those in the videos!

  106. Kula bácsi

    January 29th, 2007 at 5:55 am

    WTF cares about Google Tv. Retards try this hoax.

  107. kmac

    January 29th, 2007 at 7:37 am

    ^^^You cared enough to reply. Check out Mark’s video on how to increase your Wi-Fi signal. Too funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8Wi7XRXCA

  108. Classifieds

    January 29th, 2007 at 8:09 am

    Funny!
    I guess it’s only a matter of time until it becomes reality.

  109. Frank Cefalu

    January 29th, 2007 at 9:34 am

    It works. You guys are all idiots. Especially you Mike. Freaking Unbelievable.

    It worked for me after 18 tries. But I had to copy all the links on the main tab.

    THIS IS exactly why google probably bought youtube.

    Great Service. Thanks to you Mike I am now watching episodes of House online ^_^.

  110. josh

    January 29th, 2007 at 10:24 am

    “If you watch the video linked in comment 79, he suggests wrapping an Ethernet cable around your cell phone then plugging that cable into your computer for better reception. In Erickson’s second Google tv video he’s got his cell phone wrapped in an Ethernet cable. You have got to love the consistency and commitment of this guy.”

    What’s weird, though, is that I did this, and picked up a wireless network. I’m not sure what to make of this guy…

  111. Jimmy Ruska

    January 29th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    I confirmed too
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-eCO5L9wXQ

  112. Frank Cefalu

    January 29th, 2007 at 12:13 pm

    @Josh

    I saw that video. I think its a combination of the material cat-5 cables are made of. Indeed it is plugging into your Ethernet port, and not your wireless. But the fact that your wireless is scanning it will use the cat-5 cable in addition to the wireless phone to increase your range. Even with your cellphone near your computer to begin with you can see the evident effects of it near your computer.

    This is a episode for the MythBusters Im afraid.

  113. Jamie

    January 29th, 2007 at 12:19 pm

    Guys just check this out, this kinda means something
    http://news.com.com/GoogleTV+i.....76654.html

  114. Bill W.

    January 29th, 2007 at 12:29 pm

    This guy has his own Wikipedia entry.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Erickson

    Someone needs to update it to include his latest endevour: an “elaborate hoax”

  115. Frank Cefalu

    January 29th, 2007 at 12:35 pm

    ITS NOT A HOAX. jesus christ . Mike, seriously AMMEND your post

  116. Brett

    January 29th, 2007 at 1:42 pm

    Let’s see what you got Frank Cefalu?

    Screenshots? Yet another video? URLs to logo images? Anything more concrete than your word?

  117. doug

    January 29th, 2007 at 1:53 pm

    Now my Gmail is down…

    Coincidence? Could this viral video be a minor DDOS attack on Gmail?

  118. eleven

    January 29th, 2007 at 2:23 pm

    Even if it was real, why would they make it over 1,000 logins to make it work? Surely if it’s that great, it’d be worth only a few. 1,000. Who has time for that sh*t?

  119. Frank Cefalu

    January 29th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

    @Brett, I can take all the screenshots in the world and it wouldn’t matter. Here on this page 3 videos stare at you straight in the face. Please, evidently your worldy knowledge and know how of video editing will somehow let us take a peek into what you think these individuals did.

    I would also like to hear Mikes insight on how he deemed them fake. It has worked for me, its simple as that, I am not going to go to long lengths and strides to prove to you of my accomplishment. I made a post supporting my position on my blog. I don’t need to be labeled as a fake by anyone for producing screen shots people will seen as doctored.

    I watched House this morning, and If you cannot accept this, nor the fact that CNET has reported that GoogleTV is hiring, nor the 3 videos this morning, my one lonely screen shot I doubt will convince you further but put me in the same position as these poor bloggers that found this by mere coincidence.

  120. 0range

    January 29th, 2007 at 3:38 pm

    that’s definitely not a hoax! i tried 38 times and it worked! just keep signing in/out and don’t touch your message to yourself.

    NOW I CAN REALLY PROVE THAT IT WORKS! HERE IS LOGO IMAGE URL!

    http://tv.google.com/all/images/logotv.gif

    3.4 KB 143×59 px

  121. Chris

    January 29th, 2007 at 4:03 pm

    What is the domain name?! If you claim to have access… what is the domain name? why is the e-mail invite not being circulated.

  122. Brett

    January 29th, 2007 at 4:08 pm

    @Frank - Your blog entry doesn’t seem to indicate that you personally have been able to get this working.

    “I hope for your sake Michael Arrington you are right, even though the overwhelming evidence suggests else wise.”

    This doesn’t inspire a lot of convidence in your remarks.

    If you’re looking for evidence, look no further than the videos themselves.
    -Mark Erickson has ’starred’ in other Fatal Farm videos (http://www.fatalfarm.com) other than the ‘Infinite Solutions’ series.
    -The videos appear to be an edited full-screen movie to which Mark pretends to control. His mouse/hand and cursor movements don’t match up, you never hear mouse clicks (due to the difficulty in timing his clicks with the movie) and they intentionally try to conceal this discrepancy by only showing the cursor or his hand at one time.
    -DNS lookups on tv.google.com don’t reveal anything at all

  123. musik

    January 29th, 2007 at 4:21 pm

    It as simple as this:

    That domain doesnt resolve

    make a ping or a tracert and find out

    (in the third video you can see tv.google.com/television)

  124. rooofer

    January 29th, 2007 at 5:35 pm

    Well I sure fell for it… only about fifteen or so login’s - and out’s.
    When I started feeling stupid, that is when I knew that they had me. I just could not put anymore faith in that and I began to laugh.
    Let’s call it GOOGLE-PU not GOOGLE-TV
    It is funny though, how badly we all want… there to be another super wonderful GOOGLE-THINGEE of some sort that we can all gather around again, and again.
    Enjoy,
    Rooofer

  125. Frank Cefalu

    January 29th, 2007 at 5:59 pm

    @Brett

    “I hope for your sake Michael Arrington you are right, even though the overwhelming evidence suggests else wise.”

    Yup.

    “overwhelming evidence suggests else wise”

    I find it funny that Google would drop the project, and in such an event Mike would be right. But Like I said, I doubt this will happen. Since they are currently employing for Google TV as we speak.

    Brett, Just as much as you find the videos discredited, and try find for errors in the video. Trying to listen mouse clicks doesnt even constitute that the video is fake if the sound is off. HUNDREDS of things can factor in to make the sound off. It is not uncommon. Plus if they SPENT so much time building the god damn fake google login, inbox, email, ajax built Google TV player, with 3 Flash Players, and even managing to spoof the web address, I am pretty sure they are competent enough to sync the correct mouse clicks together.

    With the overwhelming evidence pointing elsewise, and nothing adding up, even if you didn’t get it to work, YOU can case in point make a valid conclusion that these videos cannot be dismissed as fake do to overwhelming evidence within them they are not. Sure you ping the address. BUT the server won’t accept any connection if they only allow to connect to the page from inside of your google inbox. Meaning they only accept internal connections to tv.google.com . WHICH IS highly possible. And NOT uncommon for Big Corporations hosting beta’s to do.

    I find that your reasoning is not well reasoned, and highly unconvincing. You may not personally believe these videos are real, fine, but please do not tell me because the clicks don’t match up the video is fake.

    I did get it to work, but me simply stating that does not convince anyone, and I wouldn’t use that point alone to prove tv.google.com does exist, without dismissing the stupidity thats arousing this subject.

  126. matt

    January 29th, 2007 at 6:22 pm

    Yes it is probably fake, but getting a 100% packet loss when pinging a domain does not prove anything. It’s not that hard to block ICMP.

  127. Brandon

    January 29th, 2007 at 6:35 pm

    Well I sure as hell wanted it to be true, and they are definitely doing a lot in the TV space at this moment. BUT, I did a A record lookup against their zone file, and there is no tv subdomain configured in the global DNS.

    I’m not an absolute expert, but that is far more conclusive than a simple ping not working. If the subdomain is not configured in the global dns then the URL will not work in your browser. Or anyone elses for that matter. Anywhere.

    Please correct me if I’m mistaken, but I think that is pretty conclusive.

  128. Andy

    January 29th, 2007 at 8:53 pm

    for the tard that posted that google owns googletv.com

    Google is partners with GOOGLE CURRENT which is a TV channel on some premium cable and satalite packages. On the channel, google sometimes references itself as googletv … DRR

  129. yekans

    January 29th, 2007 at 9:11 pm

    Anyone have a bot, or know where to find one. I would like to try it, but dont want to waste all my time logging in and out.

  130. AndrewDubya

    January 29th, 2007 at 11:52 pm

    Ok it’s fake…for now that is. If you go to fatalfarm dot com and look under CONTACT. “Mark Erickson” is actually Zachary Johnson, and the guy in the 3rd video is Jeffrey Max. They both have just grown out there beards and are dressed in 80’s nerd attire.

    So until Google officially announces it…
    GOOGLE TV IS FAKE!!!
    END OF DISCUSSION!!!

  131. Paul

    January 30th, 2007 at 4:04 am

    AndrewDubya , did you mean to say “look under the fatal farm WORK link”? the Contact section only has 2 photos with emails. Still, not sure what video you’re referring to

  132. Gene, "The Mortgage Man"

    January 30th, 2007 at 4:48 am

    It is not a fake, in fact John Titor “predicted” it.

  133. matt heindl

    January 30th, 2007 at 6:09 am

    I just actually WATCHED those videos on Google TV.

  134. James

    January 30th, 2007 at 6:50 am

    It’s simply waste of time

  135. Vinay

    January 30th, 2007 at 7:46 am

    I search Google for google TV and found an interesting site talking about Google TV back in 2005.

    http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/n.....2&ct=5

    the news says “Google’s first move into TV is to broadcast a Chris Rock sitcom called Everybody Hates Chris. Users will be able to watch the programme at any time for a week after it is broadcast. To avoid piracy users cannot save the file to their computers. Google has signed a contract with American TV Channel UPN for its programmes with the BBC among UK broadcasters whose programmes could appear on the channel.”

    Is this really true? They even mention about google talking to american channels and BBC in UK.

  136. Sujith

    January 30th, 2007 at 8:12 am

    It seems like they increased the number of logins required…I had to do it for 1500 times before I could get in!
    But hey, the effort was worth it - lot of interesting stuff inside - I like the way they have integrated Google Checkout with the shows with that “Buy It Now!” button. Also, the “FAQ” section is top class, considering that they have just launched this product.
    My only gripe is that the “All Features” section in the FAQ does not detail out many of the available features - one glaring example is the integration with Google Checkout.

    Great job, Google - keep it up!
    Thanks Michael, for providing the opportunity to review this - as soon as I saw what Google TV, I just could not wait to write this review!!

  137. kaala

    January 30th, 2007 at 9:11 am

    i dont belive it till i`ve seen it.

  138. nickk99

    January 30th, 2007 at 10:59 am

    is that reall?? google TV??

  139. Tom Page

    January 30th, 2007 at 2:45 pm

    For anyone stupid enough to not understand that this is a very well executed and amusing joke, look no further than the other infinite solutions videos:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/infinitesolutions

    They are all very funny and very wry - I like the iPod sync with YouTube

  140. Brett

    January 30th, 2007 at 3:36 pm

    Hahahahahhahahahahahahha

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0439rY6n6U

  141. Mike

    January 31st, 2007 at 9:46 am

    For those who want to participate in the Google TV Beta - do not listen to the doubters who are talking about ping this or DNS that. You need FAITH for this to work. If you never try the procedure, you will certainly never get to participate. If you try, at least there is a CHANCE you can join the rest of us as Beta testers. For me it took a great deal of faith, as I did not get in until my 243rd try. Also, if you are interested in only Grey’s Anatomy or American Idol, don’t bother since I had problems with the feeds for these shows. But everything else came through pretty clear.

  142. musik

    January 31st, 2007 at 10:14 am

    your monitor has to be pointing toward google offices, anyone know the exact degrees?

  143. Kevin

    January 31st, 2007 at 4:02 pm

    If this is a hoax, which I believe it is (2000+ tries with a program and no results), then why are there so many people saying they got it to work? There is nothing to gain by lying that you got Erickson’s “trick” to work. Someone enlightne me!

  144. tjapietjap

    January 31st, 2007 at 5:41 pm

    wow… 1843 is THE number.. dan werkt het. Mocht het niet werken dan even een zielig mailtje naar google en ze signen je up. Als ze dat niet doen dan hebben ze ja naam gegoogled en dan blijk je een looser te zijn.

  145. Braddy

    February 2nd, 2007 at 8:55 am

    The hoax proved how foolish people can be! a major google project like this would be announced many months before on all major TV stations fools!