Google joins in on Ethereum Merge pleasure with nifty easter egg

By: Ikenna Odunze

September 12, 2022 10:15 PM

The new feature was added just days before the long-awaited Ethereum merger.

In a sign of support for the upcoming Ethereum merger, tech giant Google is marking the time remaining until the upgrade with a new countdown timer.

If you type any variation of "Ethereum Merge" or "The Merge" into the search engine, a countdown will appear with the estimated remaining time until the merger based on the current difficulty, hash rate and Difficulty of fusion displayed.

On one side is a cartoon of two happy pandas running towards each other with hands outstretched, said to be, getting closer as the merger date approaches.

Google Cloud engineer Sam Padilla said in a Sept. 9 tweet that the timer was "a fun little surprise" and a way to show appreciation for "the work that has been going into this for years."

He said the work was done by Google's Search and Labs team, but noted that he helped "kickstart" the idea and discussion that led to the timer's implementation.

In the same post Padilla explained that the timer is connected directly to the blockchain and updates the countdown to
in real time, saying:

           "The underlying data is getting pulled directly from the blockchain via some of the nodes we run."

He also hinted that pandas are getting closer as the merger date approaches, but made a tongue-in-cheek statement by saying: “But you didn’t hear that from me.”

Google is getting more and more involved in crypto, and the company formed a Web3 team on Google Cloud on May 6th.

Google developers aren't the only ones looking at Merge, however with keen interest.

Recent search data from Google has revealed that searches for the term “Ethereum Merge” have scored above 50 multiple times over the past 30 days, reaching a maximum of 100 on September 3.

A score of 100 is considered "maximum popularity of the term", while a score of 50 means the term is "half as popular". A score of 0 means there was not enough data for that day.

Meanwhile, a recent CoinGecko report found that Singapore is the country most interested in the next Ethereum merger , followed by Switzerland and Canada, Germany and the United States, and the Netherlands.

The rankings were determined by analyzing the frequency of ten search terms, including "EthereumMerge", "ETH Merge" and “Ethereum PoW”, and these were then combined for the overall ranking.