Yesterday Google (disclaimer: I own stock) started a daily puzzle game via searchforbourne.com to ramp up to the launch of the theatrical release of Bourne Ultimatum. Remember the tracking we did for the daily puzzles for the Da Vinci Code? We’ll try to provide the same coverage for this one. Like Da Vinci, there are some prizes for this (50 United States only), but it won’t be based on speed of completion of the puzzles, see the official rules page. It’s also different in that Google has setup a fake dating website complete with Adsense to exchange codes that are being used in the daily mission briefings. Each day you return for a new briefing.

Also like we did with the Da Vinci puzzles, there might be some additional clues offered here, but please do not give away the answers to others. This spoils the challenge and fun and while it might be a bit more frustrating figuring things out on your own, it’s a lot more satisfying when you do. In that spirit, any comments left here with the answers will be removed or edited out at our discretion, but you’re welcome to and encouraged to provide other players additional hints and tips to the answers. Just don’t give the answer away.

How to play
Just login with your Google handle at searchforbourne.com and click on the link in the daily briefing section. Being it is day 2 you can catch up with day 1 and day 2. Each day you do the puzzle you’ll be entered into a drawing for prizes like cash and new car.

Since it started yesterday, here’s a recap of the missions for the first two days.

Day 1
Locate a picture showing Luc Godat’s is located in paris and copy/paste the image URL to it. Hint: It’s not on his main profile page.

Day 2
Send an instant message to Luc Godat’s screenname.

Hint: Use the instant message client under the communication tab inside the agent console. [I kept trying to use GTalk which I’m hoping that isn’t a valid screenname — oops! I got it, though and you will too once you know what to use and what to say]

Some controversy over the Bourne game launch
Phillip at Google Blogoscoped in a post titled “Google’s Undisclosed Movie/ Self Promotion” points that the contest launched with a bit of stealth which may have been misinterpreted — or properly interpreted depending on one’s perspective — as Google providing itself preferential promotional search results that weren’t labeled as being promotional.

Phillip writes:

However, it’s not the first search results “cooperation” for Google – a company claiming they don’t “manipulate search results by hand” – and also not the first Google results self-promotion (the latter, Google retracted after criticism).

Is Phillip just making a newsworthy point or is he being smug? I can’t tell, can you? If it’s the later than sheesh Phillip, ease up on the sphincter, will you?

Personally, I think sometimes people get too anal over what Google does and doesn’t do (myself included sometimes) and this is a shining example. This is for a freaking game. You know, fun, enjoyment, smile, laugh, ha ha. It wasn’t like they were trying to jam Google Toolbar ads into unrelated queries or use those godawful mouseover text ads that blow up and interfere with reading a page. It’s a long way from violating their evil mantra. Are the Google search result pages so sacred that they can’t temporarily try different promotional spots in the search results for related queries in a game other than the bland, almost invisible text ads?

If Google wants to temporarily manipulate related search result pages and show unmarked to make a game more challenging and/or promote a time sensitive game like this, I don’t have a problem with that. Do you? Yes, even if it is promotional for them and yes, even if it knocks down a few of my listings for similar keywords (didn’t in this case, but could in the future). It seems that Google caved after criticism and they now label a few select Bourne results as “Google Promotion.”

What do you think? Is it ok for Google to do this in a promotion or do you want their advertorial stuff always marked? I realize there are FTC concerns with using properly marked advertising, but the line gets gray when talking about a game like this, doesn’t it? I’ve never done any stealth game like this but I think it would be fun to do so someday and would like to think it would be lawful to do so. Your perspective?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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