The Best Google Tricks And Traps

At first Google was just a search engine; then it started to get funny. Now, Google tricks, or “Easter Eggs,” lurk behind every Google search. The right keywords or an “I’m Feeling Lucky” search will often lead you to odd and awesome Google jokes.

And Google Easter Eggs aren’t just in Search, you can also find Google’s hidden treasures in Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Translate, interactive Google Doodles, and more. Google’s April Fool’s Day pranks and jokes have become the spotlight of their humor, but many of these gems can be found year-round.

We’ve compiled this exhaustive list of all the cool Google tricks we could find. Try a few out.

14 Google Search Easter Eggs

While watching the world surf through their website, Google has sneaked their sense of humor into a handful of search queries. Google the phrases in bold for surprising results.

• Use Google’s in-search graph creation to draw a heart. Tell your secret crush to Google this equation: sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5
  
• do a barrel roll — Watch your screen spin out of control for a moment after searching, a reference to the classic Nintendo game Star Fox 64. You can also search for “Z or R twice” to the same effect (mimicking the action on a Nintendo controller).
• tilt — Make your search results page do just that. “Askew” also produces the same slanted results.
• zerg rush — Never before has it been necessary to fight for your search results. But this Google page has adopted the gameplay of the popular online game Starcraft. Searching “zerg rush” will send a never-ending fleet of Google O’s to destroy your page.
  
  But don’t give up so easily! You can defend your search results by clicking on the O’s to destroy them. You’re also prompted to share your score on Google+
  
• recursion ­­— This search is met with the suggestion, “Did you mean: recursion?” If that isn’t funny to you, then you should probably Google “recursion” and find out what it means.
• the answer to life, the universe and everything — Google nods at the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book series by giving the author Douglas Adam’s answer to the life, the universe and everything.
  
• once in a blue moon — Google guides you to the mathematical equation for the occurrence of a blue moon.
• anagram — Google asks, “Did you mean: nag a ram?” Good one!
• the loneliest number — Google comes up with the same answer as the 1969 song made famous by Three Dog Night.
• binary — First and foremost, Google is a collection of computer nerds. Of course a search for “binary” gets you the number of results in zeros and ones (You must be logged out of Google for this to work). This also works for the numeral systems octal and hexadecimal.
  
• the number of horns on a unicorn — You can probably guess this one.
• a baker’s dozen — Google figured this one out, too.
• kerning — Kerning is the typography process of adjusting the spacing between letters on a page, and a Google search does just that for the word kerning in all of the results.
• qingming — Google’s results page for the Chinese word meaning “pure brightness” is a beautiful tribute to the annual Qingming Festival in China, celebrating the spring.
  

Play Snake on Youtube — Every Youtube video can be immediately improved by pressing up + left arrow keys to begin a game of Snake overtop of a video while you watch it. This can be tough to pull off. As the video begins, quickly alternate pressing up and left 2-3 times and the snake will (hopefully) appear on the screen for you to guide with your direction keys.

Loch Ness Monster Sighting — If you have your personalized iGoogle search page set up, change your background to the beach theme. When 3:14 AM hits, you’ll see the Loch Ness Monster swimming across your background. If you don’t find yourself surfing the web into the early morning, you can just briefly adjust your clock to view Nessie. Other background themes also have surprises at 3:14 AM (or “Pi time”).

Beatbox Translation — The great gem a Reddit user discovered in 2010 gets Google Translate to beatbox for you. Translate this nonsense phrase from German to German and listen in to enjoy a killer robot beatbox.

Car Starting Translation — Enter this combination of p’s and g’s into Google Translate to hear a car starting.

Gmail Spam — Above the list of emails in Gmail, there is normally an ad, except in the Spam folder, where you’ll find the ad replaced with a link to a recipe containing SPAM. In the same vain, your Trash folder features a recycling tip instead of an ad.

Slay the Google Docs Dragon — In Google Docs, open up a spreadsheet. Press Shift + F12 to bring up a message that you’ve slain the dragon. Wow, you did it! That was easy.

Ninja Reader — In Google Reader, tap “up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a” on your keyboard and arrow keys. A ninja will pop onto your left navigation bar. Watch out!

Teddy Bear in Picasa — If you use Google’s free photo album program, Picasa, try pressing Ctrl + Shift + Y to make a teddy bear appear on the screen.

Fly around Earth — What was originally released by Google as an Easter egg inGoogle Earth has become a permanent feature. Now you can fly around the world at any time in Google Earth by pressing Ctrl + Alt + A.

Kayak across the Pacific Ocean — When searching Google Maps for directions from New York to Tokyo, Google suggests step 35, “kayak across the Pacific Ocean.” That’s a long 2,756 mile trip I wouldn’t suggest.

3D Google Maps — Navigate to your favorite Google Maps destination, then press “T” to make the map 3D. Make sure that you’ve got those nerdy glasses with you.

Travel from the Shire to Mordor — Asking Google Maps for walking directions from Lord of the Rings’ Shire to the dangerous Mordor brings a warning from Google.

14 “I’m Feeling Lucky” Searches

Google Search’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button takes you to what is (hopefully) the most relevant webpage for your search query. Over the years, the following terms have delivered user-created webpages that tweak the Google homepage in a fun way. Just search the terms in bold and click I’m Feeling Lucky.

Note: If you have Google Instant enabled, you can still find I’m Feeling Lucky to the right of the suggested search terms to find these cool pages. If that doesn’t work, disable Google Instant in your Search Settings.

• Google Gravity — Google Search gets a lot harder when you add gravity to the webpage. Grab the fallen Google logo and mess around.
• Pig Latin Google and more — The Google homepage is offered in over 150 languages, including some peculiar ones like Pig Latin, Hacker, Elmer Fudd,Klingon, Pirate, and the Swedish Chef Muppet’s Bork bork bork.
• Google Sphere — Search options orbit the Google logo. Be careful not to have your mind blown.
• Where is Chuck Norris — You may be feeling lucky, but not lucky enough to locate Chuck Norris.
  
• Google Heart Page — Add a little more love to your search. For the page to work, your Java will have to be up-to-date.
• elgooG — If you spell Google backwards, you should know what to expect.
• Google Gothic — For those dark days.
• Epic Google — Search bigger with Epic Google.
  
• Weenie Google — Better search quick before Weenie Google disappears.
• Annoying Google — This page lives up to its name.
• Google l33t — Experts in leetspeak will love searching on Google l33t.
• Google Loco — Feeling a little wild? Get loco!
  
• Google Rainbow — Brighten up your search.
• Who’s the cutest? — Not a Google variation, but aren’t you curious what answer Google provides?

14 Cool Google Search Tools

“They say we only use 10% of our brain, and I would wager we use even less of our Google.” –unknown scholar

Google has grown up quite a bit over the last two decades (the company is 98 in reverse dog years), and the maturity of their search engine has gone from an untrained puppy to that of a wise, old hound. Here are some cool tools Google Search offers.

• Calculator — Google is better at math than a lot of us. Enter in a math equation and Google will figure it out.
• Weather — To check the weather anywhere in the World, type “weather” followed by the place you want to check.
• Define Words — Save yourself a click or two and have Google define a word for you by typing “define: this word.”
• Stocks — Google will keep you up to date with the market. Just search a company’s ticker symbol for the latest numbers (ex: “TGT” for Target).
• World Time — If time zone deciphering eludes you, just type “time” and a city to get the local time.
  
• Airline Flight Schedule and Status — To see flight schedules to or from a particular location, type “flights to” or “flights from” a certain city (ex: flights from Austin to Seattle). Check a flight’s status by searching the airline and flight number (ex: Alaska Airlines 143).
• Track UPS, Fedex, or USPS Shipping — Search for your UPS, Fedex, or USPS tracking number and Google will let you know where your package is.
• Search by Phrase — Searching for words in quotes tells Google to only include webpages that use those words together in that order, as opposed to a normal search that looks for the chosen words anywhere on the page, not necessary as a phrase.
• Exclude a Term from the Results — Putting a – in front of any word in your search tells Google to exclude any results with that word, very useful when you’re searching for _____ and don’t want ____.
• Sports Scores — Typing a team’s name into the search box brings up scores for their most recent matches.
  
• Search Only One Site — Want to search a specific site for an article, but the site doesn’t have a good search function? Search that site’s pages with Google by specifying the website in your query (ex: site:mashable.com New iPad)
• Synonym Search — Place a tilde (~) in front of a word to search for its synonyms as well as the word itself (ex: Chicago ~restaurants).
• Fill in the Blank — Sometimes you don’t know exactly what you’re searching for, and need Google to fill in the blank. Insert a * in place of the word you want Google to figure out for you (ex: Thomas Edison invented the *).
• New Google Things to Do — Google knows that they’re all that and a bag of chips, so they continually update this list of unique ways to use Google tools.