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.
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.
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