Google Homepage API. A developer walk-thru example with hello world is here.

I decided to take some time today and build my own fun Google Homepage module: TD Keno v0.1. It’s a take on one of my wife and my favorite casino games: Keno, and now you can play it for free on your Google homepage. This has been submitted to Google, but I have no idea if it will make their cut or not. So far the only modules on their website are from Google themselves, but this was just announced yesterday so they are probably still sorting out submissions.

TD Keno v0.1 has been tested and works in current versions of IE, Firefox, Safari and Opera. To add to your Google homepage just do the following:

1) visit and login to your Google account at http://www.google.com/ig/
2) in the upper left corner choose “Add Content”
3) in the “Create a Section” type developer.xml and click “go.” This will give you a new “My Modules” screen. While tihs step is optional, it is also useful if you want to create your own Google Homepage modules.
4) Add the following module: http://www.tdscripts.com/scripts/google/tdkenov01.xml
5) Now you can move the module wherever you want on your custom Google Homepage and start playing.

How to play
You need to enter at least one number (to a maximum of 6 numbers) from 1-80 and then click the “Add” button. If you make a mistake or want to choose a different number just click “Clear” and type a new number. When done selecting your numbers, click the blue “Play!” to start playing. Each player starts with a score of 25 and the following odds/payouts are used:

1 spot
– catch 1 odds: 4 to 1 win 3

2 spots
– catch 2 odds: 16 to 1 win 12

3 spots
– catch 2 odds: 7.20 to 1 win 1
– catch 3 odds: 72.07 to 1 win 42

4 spots
– catch 3 odds: 23.12 to 1 win 3
– catch 4 odds: 326.43 to 1 win 120

5 spots
– catch 3 odds: 11.91 to 1 win 1
– catch 4 odds: 82.69 to 1 win 10
– catch 5 odds: 1550.56 to 1 win 800

6 spots
– catch 3 odds: 8.46 to 1 win 1
– catch 4 odds: 34.31 to 1 win 3
– catch 5 odds: 323.03 to 1 win 85
– catch 6 odds: 7752.84 to 1 win 1,500

If your score reaches zero, don’t worry, no ATMs necessary, the game will automatically reset to 25 again. You can also just refresh the page and start anew. The number of games played in each session will be recorded but it doesn’t currently remember scores from session to session. Perhaps in v0.2 if enough people are interested I’ll add that functionality.

My best so far is catch 4 out of 4. Let me know how you do, especially if you catch 5 or 6. There is a special message for catching all numbers. Have fun!

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