You might see an ad after you finish today’s Wordle

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

I was surprised to see an addition to the results when I finished Wordle, which is owned by The New York Times. The next Wordle, the share button, and a small banner advertising the NYT's Spelling Bee were all new.

The ad may come as a rude surprise to fans of Wordle. Wordle is simple: you take your shot at the day's puzzle, decide whether or not your journey is worth sharing on social media, and close the tab.

According to the NYT's profile of Wordle creator Josh Wardle, that was done by design.

But since Wordle was built originally for just Mr. Wardle and Ms. Shah, the initial design ignored a lot of the growth-hacking features that are virtually expected of games in the current era. While other games send notifications to your phone hoping you’ll come back throughout the day, Wordle doesn’t want an intense relationship.

“It’s something that encourages you to spend three minutes a day,” he said. “And that’s it. Like, it doesn’t want any more of your time than that.”

Wordle will be free to play for new and existing players when it moves to The New York Times. The NYT did not respond to the request for comment.

Wordle owes a lot to the Spelling Bee, if you're raising your pitchfork over the ad. According to the NYT profile, Wardle and his partner got into Spelling Bee in a big way in 2020, and the decision to limit Wordle players to one game per day forced a sense of scarcity.

If you're a fan of Wordle, you might want to give Spelling Bee a try, or just wait until tomorrow for a new Wordle.