Google’s interactive PAC-MAN doodle eats up millions of hours of workplace productivity

(2010 Google)

More than 4.82 million hours were collectively spend playing PAC-MAN on Friday, May 21 - to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the iconic video-game.

To mark the event, search giant Google showcased its first ever interactive Google logo and let people who had come to search play games.

According to productivity insights and time management company Rescue Time, Google's Pac-Man logo consumed 4,819,352 hours of consumer's time or the equivalent of around $120,483,800 in wages.

"For that same cost, you could hire all 19,835 google employees, from Larry and Sergey down to their janitors, and get 6 weeks of their time. Imagine what you could build with that army of man power" wrote Rescue Time's Tony Wright on the company's blog on May 24.

On May 20 market researcher Nielsen published a study on the internet habits of people living in the UK.

"Despite the large increase in the amount of time people spend online and the increasing proliferation of websites and online services, one thing has remained constant and that is the bulk of time accounted for by communicating, networking and playing games," said Alex Burmaster, VP of Global Communications for Nielsen's Online division. "These are the pillars on which the Internet as a heavily used medium are built."

Those of you that have some extra time to burn head to http://www.google.com/pacman/ to play Google's PAC-MAN logo online.