IdolHands.com :: Days in the Life of an Alpha Geek
Game Theory and Google Image Labeler (Revisited)
OK, so it appears that Google did, in fact, get the idea for Image Labeler from someone in game theory-- Luis von Ahn at Carnegie Mellon University. They licensed his ESP Game, in which players try to guess the words that their partner is entering when shown an image.
I stand by my assertion that this is the wrong game framework for creating valuable image metadata, however, because the game is about predicting your partner's guesses (thus "ESP game"), and not about collaborating or validating meaningful tags.
The purpose of von Ahn's game is made pretty clear in the screenshot below:
