Huh ?

Is this like an Easter Egg or something ?

So, is Fat Matt the evil Yahoo twin of Matt Cutts?

<<Is this like an Easter Egg or something ?>>

ehh...i don't think so. it's probably an accident although i get the strong suspicion that google does leave unannounced services out for people to find to keep people on their toes like the platypus find

Nothing unannounced here...

no, i know. but i dont think this page is really "supposed" to be up, which brought me to think about the google services that people got a peek of which were then temporarily closed off before they were released like google base. does google want this or do they just not mind it?

Here's the code from https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?continue=http://www.google.com/&hl=en:

function setupQbOcx() {
   if (!qbOcx) {
   var locator = new ActiveXObject("QuickBooks.CoLocator");
   if (locator) {
   qbOcx = locator.Create("Intuit.SBD.GBT.DataAccess");
   if (qbOcx) {
   var companyKey = "Google Public Key";
   var companyId = qbOcx.getCompanyID(companyKey);
   }
   locator = null;
   }
   }
   return(qbOcx);
   }
  
   function setUsernamePassword(username, password, signIn) {
qbOcx = setupQbOcx();
if (qbOcx) {
var useNewCredentials = true;
var existingUsername = getUsername();
if (existingUsername && (existingUsername!= username)) {
// prompt user
var obj = new Object();
obj.newEmail = username;
obj.origEmail = existingUsername;
var url;
if (signIn) {
url = "https://www.google.com/accounts/gmt/signInUserChangeWarning.html";
} else {
url = "https://www.google.com/accounts/gmt/signUpUserChangeWarning.html";
}
useNewCredentials = window.showModalDialog(url, obj, "unadorned:yes;help:no;dialogHeight:480px;dialogWidth:780px;");
}
if (useNewCredentials) {
var processXml = "<GbtEvent><Credential user="" + username
+ "" password="" + password + "" /></GbtEvent>";
qbOcx.processEvent(processXml);
}
}
return useNewCredentials;
}

Pretty weird...

I'd say it was a demo page, to show what they're aiming for and to see what they want.

WTF ?

<snip>
if (signIn) {
https://www.google.com/accounts/gmt/signInUserChangeWarning.html/
} else {
https://www.google.com/accounts/gmt/signUpUserChangeWarning.html/
}

<..end snip>

Assigned code base is deprecated above here

http://blogoscoped.com/forum/68385.html#id68398

What am I missing ??

>> WTF ?

The URLs are subtley different. One is for "signing in" and one if for "signing up" (i.e. new vs. return users).

Update: Google have now removed those email addresses...

- https://www.google.com/accounts/gmt/signInUserChangeWarning.html
- https://www.google.com/accounts/gmt/signUpUserChangeWarning.html

Ooops! ;-)

> i get the strong suspicion that google does
> leave unannounced services out for people to find
> to keep people on their toes like the platypus find

I would agree except the Platypus find was so completely unlikely... why would they expect anyone to enter "index.html" on the Writely domain like Corsin did? This marketing strategy would be pretty much relying on fate. But yes, they do go the "don't announce, release" route, which adds to the buzz... and I'm sure they realized this. (Microsoft goes the "announce, don't release" route, which is infinitely less cool...)

Apple and Google both seem to like the "Deny, then release anyway" option.

Both the Buttons point to Google Analytics, but the address is wrong its:
http://google-analytics.com/
Which in turn points to the Google home page.

Bluey, I don't think the buttons point to Google Analytics, although there is some tracking code on each one which calls the Google Analytics URL (i.e. https://ssl.google-analytics.com/ since it's being hosted on HTTPS) to track which one was clicked.