Pawtucket, R.I.-based toy maker Hasbro plans to release an online, Google Maps-ified version of the board game Monopoly, according to the Guardian. Google apparently has a sense of humor about itself, but not enough of one to name the game what everyone will likely end up calling it anyway — “Google Monopoly.”
Monopoly City Streets launches tomorrow. According to reports, players get $3 million to play Monopoly using real streets. Given recent antitrust rumblings in Italy, the game could end up being a good test of the search giant’s algorithm’s ability to parse confusing search terms, or a handy way to divert web traffic from people searching for “Google” and “monopoly.”
And since including Adobe or WordPress would run counter to the spirit of the game — it’s not called Healthy Competition City Streets — the game allows you to design houses and hotels using Google Sketchup, and is releasing news on a Google-hosted Blogger.com blog.


