The Google Play Store recently started displaying a number of humorous ads for Google Play Services, a package of application programming interfaces (APIs) and a background service for Android devices. The discovery was initially made by Ron Amadeo of Ars Technica on Wednesday, with him searching for Google Play Services on the Play Store and being met with an ad for the package that comes with an amusing tagline saying “Be your own Boss, Dreams.” Apart from being worded in a manner that makes little to no sense, the tagline also features seemingly random capitalization and was likely meant to entertain; being what’s essentially a crucial part of the company’s operating system that’s usually updated automatically and exists on a majority of currently active Android smartphones and tablets in the world, Google Play Services hardly need advertising, and the lighthearted listing that can be seen below is likely meant as a placeholder for actual ads.
Google’s advertising solutions pertaining to any type of search are largely based on keywords that advertisers can choose and bid on in an effort to have their promotions displayed when users search for a particular word or term. With that in mind, the phrase “Play Services” is hardly one that sees a lot of competition from advertisers, which is why someone at Google may have decided to have some fun and create a number of amusing placeholders like the one that can be seen below. Apart from the strangely worded motivational message described above, repeated searches from some users also yielded the same listing with a tagline “Legacy, Retirement” and “Business Opportunity.” Amadeo himself saw the tagline on a device running the latest developer preview of Android O, though users were later able to replicate some of the messages on various builds of Nougat and even Marshmallow.
The Mountain View, California-based tech giant is known for a variety of hidden jokes and easter eggs that it often puts in its products, though it’s still unclear whether the seemingly random Google Play Services ads are part of such a concentrated effort by the company or simply a result of some bizarre bug.
