The Best Google Easter Eggs

What are Google Easter eggs? (Definition and explanation)

Google has hidden over 2,000 Easter eggs in many of its products and services, such as Google Search, YouTube, and Android. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_Easter_eggs#cite_note-1]

Easter eggs are hidden features or messages, such as jokes or cultural references, that are inserted into media. They are often well hidden, so that users find it delightful when they discover them, which helps establish a bond between their creators and finders. Google's employees are encouraged to spend 20% of their time on projects of personal interest – and Easter eggs are sometimes created in the process. Google avoids adding Easter eggs to popular search pages, since they are not meant to negatively affect usability.

Google's Easter eggs at a glance:

Askew

If you enter “Askew” into Google Search, the screen is tilted to one side. As soon as you enter a new search term, the display is straightened again and returns to its original form. Previously, the term “tilt” triggered this effect, which no longer works now.

Blink html

With the command “Blink html” search results are displayed in which the word “Blink” appears blinking in an animation in the description.

Festivus

The term “Festivus” makes a pole appear to the left of the search results. This is a reference to the counter-concept invented by the American sitcom “Seinfeld” to the classic Christmas season with family.

Bletchley Park

“Bletchley Park” is the name of a country estate in the English town of Bletchley, and during the Second World War it housed a military center that helped decipher the Germans' secret messages in the Second World War. If you enter “Bletchley Park” as a search term, an info box appears in which the name Bletchley Park is first encrypted and then decrypted in an animation.

Pacman / Pac-Man

By entering “Pacman” the video game classic Pacman appears on Google as a small browser mini-game. Pacman, released in Japan under the name Puc-Man, was developed and published by Namco in 1980.

Metronome

Search for “Metronome” and you are shown the device of the same name, with which you can set an acoustic signal that always indicates the beat in the same tempo. The tempo can be set from 40 BPM (beats per minute) to 218 BPM.

Once in a blue moon

The search term “once in a blue moon” makes the calculation “1.16699016 × 10−8 Hertz” appear. In German this phrase means “alle Jubeljahre” – a rare event. The calculation is meant to compute the probability of a blue moon (every 2.7 years).

Solitaire and tic-tac-toe

Enter one of these two search terms (solitaire or tic-tac-toe), in order to play the games of the same name in your browser. A nice pastime for in between. In the game solitaire, there are two different difficulty levels.

Kerning

“kerning” in German means Unterschneidung, but in typography it stands for the spacing between individual letters. With this search term, “K E R N I N G” appears pulled apart in the individual results… a fairly weak Easter egg, in my opinion, but worth mentioning for the sake of completeness.

The answer to life the universe and everything

Enter “the answer to life the universe and everything” and you get the following answer: “…42” – anyone who knows English here clearly has an advantage, and anyone who has read the book “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” knows this running gag.

The loneliest number

With the search term “the loneliest number” the number 1 is shown to you in the Google calculator. You see the same thing with the term “the number of horns on a unicorn.” You can combine Easter eggs 12 and 13: “the loneliest number plus the answer to life the universe and everything” together gives the number 43.

dreidel and fidget spinner

Enter “play dreidel” and you can play a small interactive dreidel-spinning game. Alternatively, you can also simply search for spinner or “fidget spinner” and get the small device running. You can set a spinning wheel and spin a wheel of numbers. Note on the status: The “fidget spinner” was tied to the 2017 trend and has been removed from German Google Search. The dreidel game is still available seasonally.

What sound does a … make

On the English-language Google page, you can enter, e.g., “what sound does a tiger make” and you are played what a tiger sounds like. You are also shown a large list of various animals, whose sounds you can likewise listen to.

Bubble Level

Do you urgently need a spirit level? With the Google search term “Bubble Level” on the smartphone (only works there) you can repurpose your phone into a spirit level. It works surprisingly precisely and is sure to amaze one or two hobby handymen.

Recursion

Recursion, simply put, means “the repetition of identical patterns” and is an important component in mathematics, logic, and computer science (more on this on Wikipedia). Enter this search term into Google and you are asked whether you didn't actually mean recursion (“Did you mean: Recursion”).

Language set to Klingon

Under Settings -> Search settings, you can set the language to Klingon. Here is a video on how to learn Klingon quite easily… This makes every fan of the Star Trek series' heart beat faster.

Conway’s Game of Life

The game Conway’s Game of Life was designed in 1970 by the English mathematician John Horton Conway and is meant to represent a life simulation for cells. Use Google Search and enter “Conways Game of Life”. The multiplying cells from Conway's simulation then appear there.

Do a barrel roll

A classic is “do a barrel roll” (or “Z or R twice”) – the search rotates the entire search results page once by 360 degrees, a reference to Star Fox 64. The Easter egg still works.

Snake

Anyone who searches for “play snake” can start the classic Snake game directly in the search results – also active.

Google Easter eggs that (unfortunately) no longer exist

Roll a die and Flip a coin

On the English-language Google page, you could roll the dice with “Roll a die” and flip a coin using “Flip a coin.”

Chuck Norris

In honor of Chuck Norris! Via the search query “Chuck Norris” and then a click on the “I'm Feeling Lucky” button, Google refused the command to search for Chuck Norris. The reason for this was that Google supposedly knows that you can't find Chuck Norris; rather, Chuck Norris finds you.

Super Mario Coins

The hero of Nintendo and of countless children (and adults). Type “super mario bros” and Google shows you the question mark block known from Super Mario in the Knowledge Graph. If you click on it, the well-known coin melody appears, which many should know from the numerous video game spin-offs of earlier days.

Sonic the hedgehog

Enter “sonic the hedgehog”, the well-known mascot of the game developer Sega (formerly a console manufacturer), and an info box appears on the right-hand side with the character Sonic and a small animation and sound file. Note on the status: This Easter egg is now no longer available in German Google Search; Sonic is still partly playable via the archive elgooG.

Star Wars

By entering “a long time ago in a galaxy far far away,” the search results were rendered in the style of the Star Wars intro. Here's a little video on this:

Atari breakout

In Google image search, you could play the Atari minigame with the words “Atari Breakout.” Google removed this Easter egg from image search in 2020; it is still playable as a faithful reproduction on elgooG (elgoog.im/breakout). In January 2025, Google additionally launched a similar game, “Block Breaker,” directly on the search results page.

Is Google down?

A nightmare for many internet users would probably be if Google were to stop working. So why not ask the search engine itself, just to be safe, whether it still works? With the search term “IS GOOGLE DOWN,” you were shown the answer “no.”

Let it snow

Fittingly for the cold season, the search engine was covered with snow when the command “let it snow” was entered.

Zerg rush

Enter “Zerg Rush” and small circles (Google Os) appear that will attack and destroy your search results. It sounds brutal now, but fortunately that's only the case with this one search term. If you don't manage to destroy all the Os in time, a “GG” (Good Game) appears on the screen. Note on the status: In German Google Search, Zerg Rush has been removed; it is only playable via the archive elgooG.

• suez canal

A small reference by Google to the blocked Suez Canal in March 2021.