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.
It worked! After 1000 sign ins and outs, 300 browser restart, and 25 computer restart! OMG, Google TV is AWE-Some! :)-
yep, me too. that 1,000 logins is the magic number.
Whoa, for me it worked after 1243 logins, man, am I happy now.
1000+ logins???!!! I’ll just wait for it to come out for the public’s use.
You guys have a lot of time!!
*lol* =)
Very well done.
EDIT: Really worked after only 1001 logins and sending mail to support@google.com
What a waste of time…
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?
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.
I was trying to do this but after 50 logins I gave up
How is this anything but a DoS attack?
I’m not even going to try this.
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.
this was all over yesterday…. amazing that this made digg home page when it was already there 2x yesterday. gotta love digg!
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
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.
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?
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
obviously a fake, but it’s pretty obvious that google would never get into that business.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/n.....2&ct=5
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.
Screams fake. No business sense for Google to get into this.
wow took me 1337 login attempts, it rocks,
this guy must have done an awful lot of work with DNS spoofing software
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.
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.
Totallly awesome. That guy is funny as hell. Why doesn’t SNL get someone like him ?
This Video from Mark Erickson ist also hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8Wi7XRXCA
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
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
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.
Well that might be just a caching issue.
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.
How can you guys say it does not work!!!! You haven’t tried it! It’s really there!
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.
He can publish tv.google.com all he wants. Doesn’t mean the domain isn’t masked or a forgery!
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!
Great parody of computer chronicles.
How can you believe a guy who uses MS Windows + MS iExplorer?
For all those claiming it works, prove it. Show us a screenshot.
http://www.televee.com/ works for most TV episodes… this is obviously a fake
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.
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
Who wastes all that time to make a fake. Do something productive with your time.
Google *will* be entering the TV business.
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
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.
working on my end. must have been limited to the first 100 users.
I actually got it on the *first try*!
no way you lucky bastard
i didnt need 1000tries. i just went to youtube and wrote in google television.
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.
I wonder if this guy could help out over at Yacht Rock?
You can tell its fake and the guys an idiot because he is using internet explorer
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
“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.
Mike: Why are comments 19 and 32 still up?
@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!
lol, I mean ICMP :p (darn alcohol)
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.
This prank is going to go down as a fairly famous one. A++ for the amount of people he convinced.
Running the “ping -c 3 tv.google.com” in OS X results in 0% packet loss. The domain IS VALID.
Try it yourself!
Google is great
are you guys serious…1000 + logins?
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.
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
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?
absolutely not believe…
A poll entitled “Is Google TV real” is posted at http://www.vizuble.com
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.
Well I wont be wasting my time trying it!
It’s a fake the guy is browsing Google TV from http://tv.google.com and that URL doesn’t exist
too
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
Definately a Hoax!!! I’m not even gonna attempt signing out once for this
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
@Andrew..
of course pinging gdsqgfdsggqgsd.google.com will work - didn’t you hear about the “gdsqgfdsggqgsd”-projekt yet?
@Andrew..
of course pinging gdsqgfdsggqgsd.google.com will work - didn’t you hear about the “gdsqgfdsggqgsd”-project yet?
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
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!!
Looks fake to me
i love it. that guy is brilliant.
What are you going to do if they turn out to be right and you have been running around screaming “liar, liar, liar” ?
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.
Mikey,
Please get a real host. MT can not handle your traffic.
So sad that it’s a fake! Come on Google….I want the TV on my GG account.
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!
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.
if i dont find a bod by tomorrow ill write one….
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.
i got it after my one kabillionth login!
go to hell assholes
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.
To be more precise - focus on 0:47-0:49, the cursor starts moving up while his hand stays still.
Lol, I got it with one login.
Let me make a video that looks like it was recorded in 1970 to prove it.
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.
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
Too bad it’s fake. But everyone is really excited and looking forward for this. Maybe there should be a GoogleTv service from Google.
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
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.
ha ha… the 7th season of 24… keep looking, it’s there!
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.
That’s a pretty clever hoax
Yes, nice hoax
The turnover time for new shows on this thing is great. I watched the new 30 Rock right after it aired. Awesome.
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
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!
WTF cares about Google Tv. Retards try this hoax.
^^^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
Funny!
I guess it’s only a matter of time until it becomes reality.
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 ^_^.
“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…
I confirmed too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-eCO5L9wXQ
@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.
Guys just check this out, this kinda means something
http://news.com.com/GoogleTV+i.....76654.html
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”
ITS NOT A HOAX. jesus christ . Mike, seriously AMMEND your post
Let’s see what you got Frank Cefalu?
Screenshots? Yet another video? URLs to logo images? Anything more concrete than your word?
Now my Gmail is down…
Coincidence? Could this viral video be a minor DDOS attack on Gmail?
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?
@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.
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
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.
@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
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)
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
@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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!!!
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
It is not a fake, in fact John Titor “predicted” it.
I just actually WATCHED those videos on Google TV.
It’s simply waste of time
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.
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!!
i dont belive it till i`ve seen it.
is that reall?? google TV??
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
Hahahahahhahahahahahahha