Developer

Google Easter Eggs, Pranks, & Oddities

By // September 28, 2009, 12:34 AM PST

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  • Everyone who surfs the net knows that the folks at Google are truly innovative and are always coming up with new and exciting technological advances. However, sometimes all that creative energy turns to mischievous endeavors. Don't believe us? Well take a look at this gallery.

  • ASCII Art

    As you may know, ASCII art is a text-based art technique that uses the characters defined by the ASCII character set to create graphic images on the display. When you search for ascii art (using lowercase letters) the Google logo changes to an ASCII art image.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Blue Moon

    We've all heard the ancient phrase once in a blue moon and know that it means a rare occasion. However, have you ever wondered where it came from? Well, if you search for the phrase once in a blue moon (using lowercase letters), Google Calculator will return the mathematical formula for once in a blue moon: 1.16699016 x 10-8 hertz which is equal to approximately 2.715 years.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Street View Googlers

    As you may know, Google has a fleet of vehicles equipped with special cameras that drive all over the USA documenting the country for Google Maps Street View. Well, what do you think Google employees would do when one of those vehicles drove by the Google Headquarters at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, California? Of course, they stood on the curb and cheered!

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Google Easter Bunny

    In true software Easter Egg fashion, Google has a hidden a game on its site. During Easter 2000, the Bunny game appeared and prompted users to help the bunny spell the word Google by catching falling eggs in a basket.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Gmail Spam Recipes

    As you know, Google is known for its contextually targeted advertising, which is essentially advertising that is related to the term you are searching for. This advertising technique is also found in the company's E-mail service Gmail where advertisements related to text in your email message appear in the margins. Well, in the Gmail Spam folder, you’ll find advertisements for recipes using Spam (the canned meat).

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Recursion, Recursion, Recursion, Recursion...

    If you are a developer, then you know that recursion is a method in which a function calls itself. This will repeat over and over until a certain condition is met. If you are not a developer, go to your local clothing store and stand in front of one of those angled mirrors where you can see your reflection repeated on and on and on. Well, that's recursion.

    To see Google's twist on this concept, just search for the term Recursion. When you see the results page, you'll see that the Did you mean feature which is designed to catch misspellings, contains the word Recursion. If you click it, you will see the exact same page again. Keep clicking and you'll see it over and over and over again.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Klingon Google

    If you're a Trekkie, then you know that Klingon (tlhIngan Hol) is a language created by Dr Marc Okrand, a professional linguist, for use by the Klingons in the Star Trek movies. In fact, Klingon is a complete language, with its own vocabulary, grammar, and usage. As such, it shouldn't come as a surprise the there is a Google search site that presents its user interface in the Klingon language. Of course the results are in English but the interface remains Klingon.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Google Earth Flight Simulator

    If you download and install Google Earth, you'll want to investigate the hidden flight simulator. To do so, just press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+A and you'll immediately be prompted to choose either an F16 or a four seat propeller airplane, choose your starting point, and begin flying over the amazing landscapes.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Google TiSP

    Are you always on the lookout for freebies? If so, then you may have momentarily fallen for this Google April Fools Day gag for Google TiSP, which was billed as a FREE in-home wireless broadband service. This elaborate hoax includes all the promotional lingo that you would expect on a real sales pitch. However, once you investigate a bit further and see that it involves installing fiber-optic cable in the commode, you immediately realize that it is a joke.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Google Mentalplex

    Computers are getting easier and easier to use. Someday we'll be able to control our computers by thinking about what we want to do. That was the idea behind this 2000 April Fool's Day hoax for Google Mentalplex. While you can't see it in this still image, the wheel on this page swirls in a mesmerizing way and you are prompted to stare at a spinning wheel and project mental image of what you want to find.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Google PigeonRank

    Ever wonder how Google is able to quickly and accurately rank their search results? Well, according to the information presented on this page, with Google's patented PigeonRank system it's easy. You can learn all about the pigeon clusters (PCs) that are used to compute the relative value of web pages faster than human editors or machine-based algorithms.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • iGoogle at 3:14 AM

    Have you experimented with iGoogle? It's a service of Google that allows you create your own customized Google-based Web portal. As a part of the customization, you can choose from several interface themes, such as City Scape, Seasonal Scape, or Beach. The neat thing about each of these schemes is that sky changes according to the time of day. In the morning there is a sunrise and in the evening there is a sunset. The moon even changes through its phases. Even more interesting is that every night at 3:14 AM, an Easter Egg will appear in each of these themes for one minute. (The reason for the timing of 3:14 is that it is rumored to be a tribute to the number pi.)

    For instance, in the Beach theme, the Loch Ness Monster makes an appearance. In the Seasonal Scape, the Northern Lights appear. In the City Scape, UFOs appear.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Google Igpay Atinlay

    When I was a kid, my best friend's older sisters used to taunt us in Pig Latin. We soon learned to anslatetray and became quite fluent ourselves. Someone at Google must have had a similar experience, because there is a Google search site that presents its user interface in Pig Latin.The results are in English but a search can turn up other sites written in Pig Latin.

    Imagesway ybay Eggray Ultzshay orfay EchRepublictay

  • Gmail Laundry

    Hate to do laundry? Why not let Gmail do it for you? On the Gmail Help - Suggest a feature for Gmail page, there is actually an option titled Have Gmail do the laundry. When you click the Suggest it button, the vote appears to be added to the system. There's probably someone at Google who gets a big kick out of the number of votes for the laundry feature.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • The number 42

    If you are a fan of Douglas Adams's comical science fiction works The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, then you will appreciate the number 42 Easter egg. In the story, when the Deep Thought supercomputer was asked the answer to the question What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything? it eventually turns out the answer as 42.

    To see Google's version of this classic, just search for the phrase:

    the answer to life, the universe, and everything

    using all lowercase letters and no ending punctuation. When you do, the results page will include an answer from Google's Calculator.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Meliza on Mars

    If you have been using PCs since the early days, then you know who Eliza was. A primitive natural language processing program, Eliza was a simulation of a psychotherapist that would engage you in a conversation by using your responses to generate further questions. Well, thanks to the folks at Google Earth, Eliza has been reborn in the Mars tool as Meliza. If you type Meliza in the Fly To search box, you'll be taken right to the Meliza icon, which looks like a robot head. Just click in the icon and Meliza will begin communicating with you.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Google on the Moon

    Nobody in their right mind would turn down an opportunity to work at Google, but would you be willing to relocate to the moon? Well, according to this posting on Google Jobs, the Google Copernicus Center is hiring!

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Google Fudd

    Who can forget Elmer Fudd? The Looney Tunes character with a speech impediment was always funny as he ineptly tried to hunt that wascally wabbit. Well, if you have an affinity for Elmer's unique speech, you can use the Elmer Fudd Google interface to conduct your searches.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Operating System Googles

    The folks at Google know that a lot of search operations revolve around questions about various computer operating systems. To make those types of searches more targeted, Google offers several operating system search pages.

    Search Microsoft Related Sites at www.google.com/microsoft.html
    Search Linux Related Sites at www.google.com/linux
    Search Mac Related sites at www.google.com/mac

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Street With A View

    The majority of the Street View images in Google Maps are shot without any advanced notice. However, in May of 2008 two Pittsburgh artists and a multitude of local people collaborated with the Google Street view team to stage a street shoot called Street With A View that included a parade, a marathon, a garage band, a sword fight, a heroic rescue and much more.

    To see the Street View images, access Google Maps and type

    778 Sampsonia St, Pittsburgh, PA

    in the address box. Now, click Street view image and click your way up the street.

    * You can learn more about the project at the Street With A View Web site.

    * You can watch the Making of Street With A View video on YouTube.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

  • Google's Birthday

    On Sunday, September 27, 2009 I went to the Google home page to conduct a search and noticed that logo was misspelled--it had two ls. At first, I thought it was a typo that slipped in by mistake. However, hovering my mouse pointer over the logo revealed a pop up that informed me that it was Google's 11th Birthday.

    Images by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic

Everyone who surfs the net knows that the folks at Google are truly innovative and are always coming up with new and exciting technological advances. However, sometimes all that creative energy turns to mischievous endeavors. Don't believe us? Well take a look at this gallery.

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About Greg Shultz

Greg Shultz is a freelance Technical Writer. Previously, he has worked as Documentation Specialist in the software industry, a Technical Support Specialist in educational industry, and a Technical Journalist in the computer publishing industry.