The seo-nerd and his team of the Berliner SEO agency have always suspected that nerds also work for Google. As serious and straight-forward the colleagues from Mountain View have done their job, they sometimes can also be quite humorous. Then they turn the internet upside down, beam us back to the year 1998 and give us answers for the meaning of life. Whether funny games in the SERP, special interfaces or some hidden features on Google Maps – the search engine can always come up with new surprises.
Here is our list of the best Google Easter Eggs.
Google Easter Eggs mix up the SERPs
1. Askew
When entering the command „askew“, you can see your wish being carried out immediately. The search engine hangs itself up, so to speak, and tilts the SERP.
Google Easter Egg “do a barrel roll“
2. Do a barrel roll
Completely whacky it all gets when typing in „do a barrel roll“. The SERP also fulfills that wish and starts to do a roll straight away.
3. Blink search
Google knows HTML. If you search „blink html“ or „<blink>“ Google implements this command immediate and the keyword in the SERPS blinks.
Google Easter Eggs as everyday life assistants … almost
4. Is Google down
If you ask google.co.uk „is google down“ it replies happily „no“.
Google Easter Egg „anagram”
5. Nag a ram
An anagram is when you rearrange the letters of a word to get another word. If you google „anagram“ the search engine suggests „do you mean: nag a ram“. Knee-slapper!
6. Recursion
Simplified, „recursion“ means repeating things after a certain pattern. If you enter the term on Google, it asks: „did you mean: recursion“.
7. Blechtley Park
Bletchley Park was the military headquarters, where in the Second World War with the Enigma machine the message code of the Wehrmacht was decrypted. If you enter „bletchley park“, Google decodes the name of Bletchley Park in the Knowledge Graph.
8. What sound does a dog make
If you ask google.co.uk this question, you can listen to the answer. You can replace „dog“ with another animal, but what does the fox say neither Google knows.
9. Bubble Level
You are not sure if the picture frame on the wall is even? Just search for „bubble level“ on your mobile browser and Google will show you a functioning water scale. This does not work desktop, of course, does not work. But who wants to hold his monitor on the wall?
Google Easter Egg “Klingonisch”
10. Qapla’ – Google on Klingon
An Google Easter Egg for Trekkies: you can chance your language setting to Klingon.
11. Teapot
The subdomain www.google.com/teapot says“ 418. I’m a teapot. The requested entity body is short and stout. Tip me over and pour me out.“ Click on the picture and tea will be poured in the teacup. This is a reference to the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol.
Google Easter Eggs on YouTube
12. Harlem Shake
The internet never forgets – nor does YouTube. Search for „do the harlem shake“ and watch YouTube freak out.
13. Webdriver Torso
Do you know the YouTube channel Webdriver Torso? No? No problem, because the countless videos there just show seemingly random red and blue shapes on a white background with random sound. If you enter „Webdriver Torso“ on YouTube, the search results are displayed in red and blue blocks. Google the term, the Google logo appears in colorful, flashing blocks.
14. Doge meme – such wow!
Meme fans know the doge for long. On YouTube, there is a homage to the meme with the dopey Shiba. If you enter „doge meme“ there, the font appears in Comic Sans and colorful.
15. Use the Force, Luke
Almost without thinking YouTube reacts on the request „Use the force luke“. Then the elements will start to hover like in Star Wars.
Google Easter Eggs in the interfaces
16. Google in 1998
What Google looked like before the turn of the millennium, most of us have already forgotten by now. Whoever would like to be beamed back to the year 1998 should load the UK-version of Google (it only works on there) and type in “Google in 1998”. If this shouldn’t work, try to open a private tab in your browser and enter the /ncr address there.
17. Hacker Interface
Do you want to feel like a hacker? Use the Hacker Interface.
18. Pirate Interface
Or do you prefer buccaneers? Google also has a Pirate Interface
Google Easter Eggs on Google Earth
Google Easter Egg “Nessie”
19. I saw Nessie!
Search for „Loch Ness“ on Google Maps. The little Street View icon (a.k.a. peg man) is then transformed into our most favorite cryptozoological lake monster.
20. Google on the Moon and Mars
The earth is too boring for you? Just visit Moon or the Mars.
Google Easter Egg “Drachenflug”
21. It’s faster via dragon flight
If you want to travel from Snowdon to Brecon Beacons, you can also choose the dragon. The flight lasts only about half an hour – better than three and a half hours drive.
Google Easter Eggs in the calculator
22. Once in a blue moon
The saying „once in a blue moon““ refers to a very unlikely to happen or rare events. If you enter the phrase on Google, the search engine calculates the probability of a so-called „blue moon“, ie the second full moon within a calendar month.
Google Easter Egg “once in a blue moon”
23. The answer to life
Google Easter Eggs can be deep though, as well. When asking the search engine for the meaning of life with the following phrase: „the answer to life the universe and everything“ receives the response „42“. Kudos for Douglas Adams’ genius „The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“ series.
24. The loneliest number
If you ask Google about „the loneliest number“ number, the calculator says „1“. The same answer you get if you search for „the number of horns on a unicorn“. You can even combine these Easter Eggs: „the loneliest number plus the answer to life the universe and everything“ is 43.
Google Easter Eggs for gaming
25. Zerg rush
When using Google on a daily basis and appreciating the results you may Easter egg-defend the search engine once in a while. After entering the words „zerg rush” the SERP turns into an epic game board. The search results are attacked by hungry circles. Now it’s your turn! Destroy the killer circles and defend the search result page. Be merciless!
Google Easter Egg “Super Mario Bros.”
26. Super Mario coins
Search for „super mario bros”. Google shows you not only the usual relevant search results, but in the knowledge graph also the question mark brick known by Super Mario. Click on it – but be careful! When you’re at the office, you might want to turn the speakers off.
27. Tic Tac Toe
Do you know „tic-tac-toe”? If you search for it on Google you can play it against the search enginge.
28. Solitaire
If you search Google for another game, e.g. Solitaire, thanks to DirectAnswer “click to play” you can play the mini game directly in the SERPs.
Google Easter Egg “atari breakout”
29. Atari Breackout
After so much excitement you should get some rest. Just enter at https://images.google.com the two words “Atari Breakout”. And voila, you can find yourself in the world of Atari games that were thought lost.
30. Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel
Google’s Dreidel is not made of clay, but still works very well as a holiday game (but not just for Hanukkah). If you enter “play dreidel” you can play with the popular Jewish toy virtually.
31. Roll a die
In the UK-version of Google you can gamble a bit by searching for “Roll a die”.
32. Flip a coin
And when you’re on the UK site already, type in “Flip a coin” as well. Google then will give a coin for you in a knowledge graph with the call heads or tails.
33. Conway’s Game of Life
Conway’s Game of Life is a „life simulation“ created by English mathematician John Conway in 1970. Although it is called a game, it is a zero-player and therefore the most dull game ever. Google „Conways Game of Life” and on the right the growing cells from Conway’s system appear.
Google Easter Eggs that (sadly) don’t exist anymore
34. Tilt
When typing “tilt”, Google put the SERPs slightly diagonally. Unfortunately this works now only with „askew“.
Google Easter Egg “chuck norris”
35. Chuck Norris
The search engine Google gave the big, merciless Chuck Norris one very special Easter Egg. When typing in “Chuck Norris” and then clicking on the button “I feel lucky” Google refused to search for Chuck Norris as Google knows that you won’t find Chuck Norris, but Chuck Norris will find you! A few alternatives were offered by Google in the end, though.
36. Wadsworth’s constant
The Wadsworth’s constant states that you can skip the first 30% of any YouTube video because they are irrelevant anyway. Until 2014 “&wadsworth=1” could be attached to a video URL and YouTube automatically skipped the first 30%.
37. Swim across the ocean
When Google Maps was still new, the service could not show any meaningful routes for overseas connections. So if you wanted to travel from New York to Paris, for example, Google Maps let you swim a few thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean.
38. Star Wars opening crawl
In 2015, Google bowed to Star Wars. When you entered „a long time ago in a galaxy far far away“, the SERPs were displayed in the backward-flowing style of the intro of the early Star Wars movies.
39. One does not simply walk into Mordor
When the pedestrian version of Google Maps was still in the beta phase, Google pointed out to the user in the route inquiry from „The Shire“ or „Rivendell“ to „Mordor“: “Use caution – One does not simply walk into Mordor“.
40. The moon is made of cheese
In the early version of Google Moon when you zoomed in at maximum you saw that the lunar surface is made of cheese.
41. Snake
This Google Easter Egg was on YouTube past. When the video was buffered, by pressing the arrow keys the buffer sign turned into a snake and you could play the popular mobile game „Snake”.
Easter Egg “Beam me up, Scotty“
42. Beam me up, Scotty
Star Trek fans could type in „Beam me up, Scotty“ on YouTube. Unfortunately, you’ll still found yourself in front of your computer then, but the YouTube site disappeared.
Easter Eggs not coming from Google
Inspired by Google Easter Eggs some nerds have programmed some gimmicks that will shut down Google in your browsers.
43. Antigravity Google
An example for this is the site „Antigravity Google”. It shows us, that only gravity keeps Google together, after all. If it’s missing, the known Google world will crumble apart.
44. Too big to use
And for everyone who are sometime overwhelmed by all the googling, there’s a site to visualise this feeling. On toobigtouse.com Google search grows infinitely.
45. Let me google that for you
Do other people often ask stupid questions, which they can answer simply in 2 seconds via Google. Then send them this page: https://lmgtfy.com/