Chris Pirillo » easter-egg

What Easter Eggs are Found in Google?

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:31:31 +0000

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Devir has done a few screencasts for us in the past, with a lot of positive reviews. This time, he decided to have some fun, and show off several of the Easter Eggs he has found around Google’s sites. Don’t adjust your screen. The video is pausing at the beginning on purpose! That was Devir’s way of having a little fun with you all!

The first Easter Egg deals with the infamous Loch Ness Monster. Apparently, if you have iGoogle configured right, you will see this mysterious monster! If you change the theme to the Beach theme, you may see something interesting at precisecly 3:14am for about 60 seconds. This is a rumor, and is something that supposedly happens daily.

The next trick is a little simpler. Head over to Google.com/intl/xx-pirate/. This will take you to a search page that allows you to search like a pirate! All of your search results will be what you would normally receive. However, all of the text on the original page is pirate-speak!

You can also go to http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/ to have hacker terminology on your main page!

Next you can have a bit of actual Easter fun! Point your browser to google.com/Easter/feature_easter.html. You can use your mouse cursor to help the little Easter bunny catch eggs in his basket, and spell out the word Google! You’ll probably end up addicted to this little game.

Now we’re going to head over to your Gmail account. Click on the Settings button. Now click on the Labs button. Now scroll down until you find the title Old Snakey and enable it. Make sure you save your changes. Now, whenever you are on your main Gmail homescreen, you’ll be able to click the & sign on your keyboard, which will allow you to play the Old Snakey game at any time, with just that one click on your keyboard.

The last trick Devir has for you is an old April Fool’s joke that Google played on us all a couple of years ago. Head over to google.com/mentalplex/. Once you’re there, you can enter a search term, or search smarter and faster using the Mentalplex. Stare into the moving circle while imagining what it is you want to search for. Let the Mentalplex show you your results! People really believed that this was something real, and was hilarious!

Thanks for another fun screencast, Devir. Great work!

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What Easter Eggs are Found in Google?

How to Make Google Dance

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:28:31 +0000

How to Make Google Dance

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You use Google all the time, I’m sure. Did you know that there are a ton of neat little Easter Eggs hidden inside? There are so many things you can do to have fun with Google, and most people don’t even know about them. Luckily, Devir has produced this screencast for us, to show us his favorite Google tricks. Some of these are more fun than functional. So – let’s take a look at the functional first!

Google is a calculator. Type your math problem into Google, and it will display your answer. This works for basic math, Algebra and even Geometry!

Google is a dictionary. Type in define: followed by any word you choose… and Google will display any and every dictionary meaning associated with that word! Make sure you put the colon after the word define, then a space, and then your word.

Google is a World clock. Type in time: followed by any major city or country in the World, and Google will tell you the current time in that location. Again, remember the colon and the space!

Google is a Stock checker. Type any stock symbol into Google, and it will display all of the current information about that particular stock.

Google holds the answer to life, the universe and everything! Type in: what is the answer to life the universe and everything. Google will correctly then tell you that the answer is 42.

Now, let’s have some fun! Head over to Dark Arts Media. You’ll now see a page that looks very similar to the typical Google search. However, click the two Os in Google, and they’ll disappear. It’s a fun little magic trick to show people. Click it again, and the Os come back. The third time you click them, it takes you back to the normal Google page.

Now, head over to Google, and do an image search of any type. In the url bar, delete everything there, and replace it with the following code:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName(‘img’); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position=’absolute’; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+’px’; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+’px’}R++}setInterval(‘A()’,5); void(0);

All of the images on the page start flying around in a circle!! How cool is that?

Thanks, Devir, for an excellent screencast.

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How to Make Google Dance

Easter Egg Hunt for Toys and Candy

Chris Pirillo — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 18:06:05 +0000

Easter Egg Hunt for Toys and Candy

As a kid, what was your Easter morning tradition (if you even had one)? My two younger brothers and I would often spring out of bed two hours before the sun would rise – Easter toys and candy were waiting for us downstairs on the main level of our house. We could count on finding little chocolate footballs (chocolate eggs, really), jelly beans, miniature peanut butter cups, and a few unwrapped presents.

It’s been a few years since I was last on an Easter egg hunt – since I’m no longer a kid, and showing up to a neighborhood Easter egg hunt would be borderline weird (since Ponzi and I don’t have kids of our own). I decided to hit Target yesterday, picking up plenty of provisions so that my wife could relive her childhood Easter memories. It’s not quite the same, but at least we both had fun doing it (I think).

So, again – what did you do for Easter (this year, or yesteryear)?

Easter Egg Hunt for Toys and Candy