By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Google claims to be able to answer any question you can throw at it – but it obviously wasn’t prepared for Prince Philip when he visited Google’s London headquarters with Queen Liz the other day.

The Google staff were all prepared for the Royal drop in, the products were all ready and everyone had their lines all memorized.   What could possibly go wrong?    Obviously they forgot about the 87 year old Duke, who apparently has a very big interest in technology and who has a habit of asking a lot of questions.

When the Google staff started showing him Google Earth and satellite shots of Buckingham Palace, Phil decided he would much rather want to see an image of the Google offices instead.   He then asked “You DO know where it is, don’t you?”

So the staff started clicking to find their own building – only to find out that the building was not there because the satellite images were taken before the offices were built!   So the red-faced Google employees had to try to explain this to the Duke who looked rather bemused by the whole thing.

But to give Google credit, they rapidly moved on by showing Liz and Phil a YouTube video of a laughing baby :

The Queen thought it most amusing.  “Lovely little thing, isn’t it?” she said to Phil. “Amazing a child would laugh like that.”

But Phil didn’t hear her – he was out in the street trying to figure out why Google Earth couldn’t see the building from the air (“has Google made the building invisible?  It’s the only explanation!  BLOODY MARVELLOUS!”)

Oh, and for those who didn’t get it, that last part was a joke by the way!