Google is hiding I/O tickets in developer documentation images

Ok, I followed a shortened link and it drops me into a fairly cool terminal simulator with a space MUD-style game in it. But it&#x27;s kind of creepy to have the prompt print out as &lt;my actual first name&gt;@io<p>I know Google knows I&#x27;m logged in right now. I know that Google knows that I know that I&#x27;m logged in right now. Still, it feels weird.

<p><pre><code> $ find &#x2F;Applications&#x2F;Android\ Studio.app&#x2F;sdk&#x2F;docs&#x2F;images -type f | sed &#x27;s_&#x2F;Applications&#x2F;Android\ Studio.app&#x2F;sdk&#x2F;docs&#x2F;images_http:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.android.com&#x2F;images_&#x27; | wget -x -i - $ diff -r developer.android.com&#x2F;images &#x2F;Applications&#x2F;Android\ Studio.app&#x2F;sdk&#x2F;docs&#x2F;images Binary files developer.android.com&#x2F;images&#x2F;admin&#x2F;device-admin-activate-prompt.png and &#x2F;Applications&#x2F;Android Studio.app&#x2F;sdk&#x2F;docs&#x2F;images&#x2F;admin&#x2F;device-admin-activate-prompt.png differ [...] </code></pre> Sadly, they&#x27;re all gone.

Just found one. It&#x27;s the &quot;opportunity to purchase&quot; a ticket to I&#x2F;O. Registration code should arrive within 24-48 hours.

<p><pre><code> 1. Start scraping all images from http:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.android.com&#x2F;training&#x2F; inside div.gc-documentation 2. Inspect manually 3. Profit </code></pre> Fun!

Very clever approach by Google (I was hoping for a coding test though :), after getting the code (which is the URL), you will be directed to sign in to your Google Account and then would have to complete the Space Mercury Mission (Console Game) to win the Code for IO 2014. For the curious, this is what the game looks like: <a href="http://i.imgur.com/b1LVoG8.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;b1LVoG8.png</a>

There&#x27;s the one in... <a href="http://developer.android.com/images/tools/as-buildvariants.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.android.com&#x2F;images&#x2F;tools&#x2F;as-buildvariants.p...</a> ...but I&#x27;ve tried everything I can make of that awful font and can&#x27;t seem to get the proper chars for the URL.

It looks like they were hiding them in other places, such as old video annotations...<p>Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/jc4p/status/456881857481547776" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;jc4p&#x2F;status&#x2F;456881857481547776</a>

example image with code for the curious : <a href="https://cloudup.com/cwt9rS66Agu" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cloudup.com&#x2F;cwt9rS66Agu</a>

What do you think Google is doing it that way? Do they want us all to read&#x2F;spend more time in their developer docs examining the images?

It says I don&#x27;t have valid credentials for the four or so I found. They all seem like the same text adventure.

I have only come across the two, both on the link in the OP.<p>Has anyone found others?

Argh, too late as usual.

where are you seeing the hiding I&#x2F;O tickets?