14 DAY TRIAL // No, Clippy, I do not want any suggestions on what to do next. I just type in an article and there's nothing you can do to stop me! Once again, no, I do not want to find out about the help you can provide. Should I need it, I can get it on my own. Or are you acting up all of a sudden because you have seen the Google Docs Cliply that's had me riled up over it lately?
That's actually not a joke, nor is it a hoax meant for April Fools, Google is indeed getting ready to roll out its own annoying moving-and-talking paper clip. Lucky for them that the company's name starts with a G, so there can be some more branding involved with the new release. The first signs of this have been discovered by Tony Ruscoe and Philipp Lenssen in the source of a Google Docs document. That's the code responsible for the thingy on the left:
document.getElementById('newlogo').src = '/images/cliply.gif';
writely.Cliply.init({
'strength': 0.4,
'dexterity': 0.9,
'constitution': 0.7,
'intelligence': 0.1,
'wisdom': 0.3,
'charisma': 0.8});
}
That alone should have been enough for everybody to get that it's a joke, but it actually caused quite a stir. Unlucky for the Easter Egg, it got revealed too early and it won't impact everybody with the same "not again!" feeling and cry the engineers must have meant. Worth the try, though. I'll keep you updated as this starts to show up in the Google Docs documents, and with everything it will do. But I sincerely doubt it will be as annoying as MS Word's counterpart.
I just have to turn you off, Clippy, you leave me with no choice.