Google Tricks & Secrets List
Google Tricks, Easter Eggs & Secrets List
Google is the search engine of choice for most users. This is well
represented by the fact that Google averages one billion unique visitors
every month. A reason for this popularity is Google’s characteristic to
integrate simplicity with usability.
Google’s engineers love to hide some pretty cool tricks at the most
unexpected places. Add to that Google’s policy of giving 20% of working
time to its engineers to do what they want, and you have a search engine
filled with lots of entertaining Easter eggs and tricks.
Sadly, most of these tricks are still a secret, but every now and
then, Google employees leak these cool insider pranks and the whole
world gets to know about them. Here, I have created a list of all such
known Google tricks and Easter eggs that are still “working.”
Google in 1998
Search Google for “Google in 1998” and you will be taken to the past to a
search results page that shows how Google looked in 1998.
Kerning
Kerning means adjusting the spacing between characters. So, how would
you expect Google to describe it? Literally, off course. When you search
Google for Kerning, the spacing of the word Kerning is changed as
compared to that of other words. This only works with personalized
results disabled.
Conway’s Game Of Life
Conway’s Game Of Life is a game that indicates how cellular life evolves
based on the initial configuration. If you search Google for Conway’s
Game of Life, you will get a results page with the game running in the
background.
Jason Isaacs
Just search for Jason Isaacs and Google will return a page saying Hello
to him. This only works on Google UK. This is a reference to Kermode and
Mayo’s Film reviews which greets Jason with hello every week.
Bacon Number {Actor Name}
Kevin Bacon is a famous hollywood actor who was quoted as saying that he
has worked with everybody in hollywood or somebody who has worked with
them in 1994. This led to many websites being launched about his claim
in 2007. Bacon seeing this immense response launched a charitable
website called Six Degrees, which is based on a theory that everyone in
hollywood has worked with Kevin Bacon through a chain of six
acquaintances or less. An actor gets as many degrees as he is distant
from Kevin Bacon’s movies in terms of people in the chain of
acquaintances.
Google too has now involved Six Degrees of Bacon in its search
results. For example, searching Google for Bacon Number Johnny Depp
gives Depp’s Bacon number to be 2.
Google knows how to celebrate the holidays
Searching Google for a holiday will make Google return a page decorated
with items representing that holiday. For example, searching Google for
Christmas returns a page decorated with Christmas lights. This also
works for Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Halloween and Festivus. These Easter Eggs
based on a festival are only activated when that festival is near.
Zerg Rush
Search Google for Zerg Rush and you will see the O’s of Google attacking
the search results page. They will attacking every result one by one.
There is a health bar which indicates how injured a search result is.
You can also kill these O’s by clicking on them. They also have health
bars which indicates their health. You get points on the basis of how
many O’s you kill. The aim of this game is to beat as many O’s as
possible.
Askew or
Tilt
Ever had the chance of searching Google for
Askew or
Tilt?
If you have, then you already know what comes up. If you haven’t, do it
now and you will see the search results page literally tilt to give you
a better idea of what these words mean. This will work only if you use
latest browsers which support HTML5 and CSS3. So, Internet Explorer
users, use Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari for a while to use this.
Do a barrel roll
‘Do a barrel roll’ in its true sense means to do a 360 degree spin.
Google takes practical demonstrations way too seriously for this one and
literally spins the search results page to give you a clearer idea of
the meaning of this phrase. Don’t believe me? Go search Google for
Do a barrel roll now and see your world turn around.
This Easter egg is apparently a tribute to Star Fox, a video game series developed by Nintendo, because searching Google for
Z or R Twice
also does the barrel roll, just like in Star Fox. Many
bloggers interpreted a lot of different things from this, but Google
clarified that this fun trick was created by a Google Engineer solely
for the purpose of entertaining users along with showing the power of
new HTML5 and CSS3 technologies. Like the previous Easter egg, this will
only work in modern browsers.
Binary, Octal and Hexadecimal Number systems
Another one of those literal Google Easter eggs. If you search Google for
“Binary”,
“Octal” or
“Hexadecimal”
(without quotes) with Search Plus Your World disabled, Google will show
the number of results in the same number system. For example, searching
Google for hexadecimal will return the number of results like in the
image below.
Recursion
The “Did you mean?” feature of Google often helps many users to get to
the right results when they type something different from what they
intended to search. If you search Google for recursion, the same feature
takes you to an endless loop of clicks all linking to the same results
page thereby completing recursion, which occurs when something
calls itself. Seriously geeky.
Anagram
Another one of those “Did you mean?” Easter eggs. Search Google for
Anagram and Google will instantly ask whether you meant “Nag A Ram”
which is one of the anagrams of the word “anagram.” Google really shows
their word-playing skills with this one.
Asking Google to
define Anagram makes Google ask if you meant
nerd fame again.
ASCII Art
Are you a fan of ASCII art? Google surely is. Search Google for
ASCII art
and Google will greet you with a search results page having an ASCII
version of the Google logo at the place where normal logo should have
been. This Easter egg does not work anymore. When it did work, it looked
like the image given below.
Google Calculator Easter Eggs: The loneliest number
Do you know which is the loneliest number? Ask Google Calculator.
Search Google for the loneliest number and the in-search Google
Calculator will give one as the answer, which apparently is a tribute to
the Harry Nilsson’s song “One.”
Once in a Blue Moon
Ever wondered how much is ‘once in a blue moon’? You must have heard
this phrase often but Google calculator will give you the exact value of
this phrase and surprisingly, it denotes frequency rather than time. Go
search Google for this to get “1.16699016 × 10-8 hertz” as the answer.
The number of horns on a unicorn
Want to know the number of horns on a unicorn? Google calculator can help. Searching Google for
the number of horns on a unicorn will give 1 as the answer.
Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the universe and everything
Google is omniscient. Even the “answer to the ultimate question of
life, the universe and everything” is known to Google. Just search
Google for the above phrase and Google calculator will give you an
answer. What are you waiting for? Just go to Google and find the true
meaning of life.
[Pause to give you the time to search]
Surprised by the answer (42)? This is a reference to The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy, a popular novel based on a radio show (by the same
name) of the late seventies. Google engineers surprised you with these
tricks, didn’t they?
Another major reason for this popularity is Google’s minimalistic
homepage, which consists of a search bar and two buttons, Search and I’m
Feeling Lucky. We all know what the search button does, it takes us to a
search results page consisting of top ten results that match our query.
The “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on the other hand takes you to the top
ranking page in the search results for a particular query.
Some webpages use this behavior to create some amazing and funny
results. Here is a list of few such keywords that have some funny
websites at the first position in Google. To use these tricks, open
Google’s homepage, type in the phrase and hit the I’m feeling lucky
button. To use the I’m feeling lucky button, you have to disable Google
Instant.
Google Gravity
The force of gravity is non-existent in cyber space. Google gravity
makes you realize how Google would have been if gravity had been
effective on the internet as well. Just type Google gravity in the
search bar and press the I’m feeling lucky button. This will take you to
the Google gravity page which, at first look, might appear to be the
Google homepage itself. Wait for a few seconds and you will realize why
this Chrome experiment is called Google gravity. Although the website
lists it as a Chrome experiment, it works on Mozilla Firefox as well,
although it does not work on IE8 and previous versions of IE.
Google Sphere
Want to see images on Google dance in circular motion?
Google sphere
is the phrase for that. This phrase will take you to the Google sphere
Chrome experiment. Google sphere is a modified version of Image search
that adds a bit of fun to your regular search. This Chrome experiment,
just like the previous one, works on Chrome, Firefox and IE9.
Epic Google
Epic Google will take you to a growing version of Google that will
continue to increase in size until it becomes too large to read.
Enable Pirate language in Google
Remember the Facebook Pirate language trick? Google too has their own
pirate version to compete with that of Facebook’s. Just use the
Google Pirate phrase or directly head over to Google Pirate.
Google Rainbow
This phrase will take you to a Google search homepage in which each
element changes its color rapidly to create the rainbow effect. The
search result page obtained for queries is very annoying too as it
contains a very loud color combination of red, blue and green.
Annoying Google
Want to get annoyed while searching on Google? This one is for you. This
phrase will take you to a Google search homepage with each word having
alternate capital and small letters making everything a bit too hard to
read.
2204355
Are you already familiar with the age old internet prank called
rick-rolling and want to discover something new? Chicken rolling is for
you. Try this new way of trapping unsuspecting internet users by typing
the code 2204355 in the Google search box and hitting the “Lucky
button.”
LOL Limewire
Type in LOL Limewire in Google and you will be taken to a .swf file
claiming that you are a pirate and telling you to “do what you want
cause a pirate is
free.” Funny!
