Google is the world’s largest and most used search engine with more than 87% market share among the leading search engine providers. It handles over 1.2 trillion searches per year.
Google has changed our lives forever. Today it’s hard to imagine a world where Google doesn’t exist. Billions of people use Google daily, and if they were asked, they would probably say they know everything about its search engine.
However, what most people don’t know is Google is a ‘unicorn tool’ that can do a variety of things, from making appointments and sending messages to tracking your physical location.
Along with the incredible achievements and milestones that Google has in its name, the company is also known for its fun and lighter side. Google has added many Easter eggs, jokes, and hoaxes into its products and services.
We have compiled a few cool Google tricks that are often well hidden. Search the term and experience them yourself. Some of them may not work on mobile devices.
20. The Answer To Life, The universe, And everything
In 1979, an English author Douglas Adams wrote a novel: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He added a central joke that became more famous than the novel itself: “The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is 42″.
19. Askew
If you don’t know what the term ‘askew’ means, Google has a unique way of explaining it. If you type askew in the search box, it will cause the results page to tilt, leaning down, left to right.
18. Anagram
Search for anagram, and you will notice a weird suggestion. Google rearranges the letter to suggest you were actually looking for “nag a ram’.
Basically, an anagram is a type of wordplay in which letters of a word or phrase are rearranged to produce a new word or phrase.
I hope you get it now why Google does that. If you search ‘define anagram’, it will show ‘Did you mean: nerd fame again’.
17. Recursion
In computer science, recursion refers to a function that calls itself directly or indirectly. The self-reference is just the sort of programming amusement that entertains Google nerds. If you type ‘recursion’ into the search bar, it will suggest that perhaps you meant to search for recursion.
16. Once In A Blue Moon
A blue moon is the second full moon in a month (or a third or fourth full moon in a season). Although it doesn’t happen very often, it does occur at some level of regularity, which is why the phrase has punch. The phrase in modern usage has nothing to do with the color of the moon.
Since it happens more or less periodically, it is possible to convert this pseudo-period into frequency, which is usually measured in Hertz.
When you type ‘once in a blue moon’ into the search engine, Google displays the frequency, telling that we can expect a blue moon every 2.71542689 years.
15. The Loneliest Number
According to Google, one is ‘the loneliest number’. And ‘the number of horns on a unicorn’ in also equal to 1.
In fact, the results of several Google tricks can be calculated. For example, ‘the number of horns on a unicorn plus the loneliest number’ will return 2.
14. Google Logo History
If you search for ‘Google logo history’, it will show you a slideshow of changes to the company logo, starting with the current logo and ending with the ones used in 1998.
13. Google In 1998
‘Google in 1998′ takes you to the early design of Google.com when the company first launched. Yup’s that’s the retro look with a Yahoo-like exclamation mark. If you search for anything, it will transport you back to present-day Google.
12. Blink HTML
If you search ‘blink HTML’, ‘blink tag’, or ‘<bling>’, you will see these words blinking in and out of the search results page on Google.
11. Festivus
Type ‘Festivus’ and Seinfeld fans receive an unexpected treat: the undecorated aluminum Festivus pole. It appears on the left side of the search results. The pole starts from the bottom of the page and ends at the top.
It’s a tribute to the alternative holiday tradition inspired by an episode of the American sitcom television series, Seinfeld, where George Costanza’s dad tells how he started Festivus to replace over-commercialized Christmas.
10. Pronounce Big Numbers
If you want to spell a big number, just add ‘=english’ as a suffix. Google will show you the alphabetical form of that number. It works up to 13 digits.
9. Tic Tac Toe
‘Tic tac toe’ will show you the game, which you can play against a friend or against the computer at three different levels. An alternative search phrase to find the game is ‘shall we play a game’.
There are plenty of interesting games to keep you engage, for example, Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Snake.
8. Spinner
If you search for a ‘spinner’, Google will show you an interactive spinning wheel, along with a dropdown menu to set the numbers on the wheel (between 2 and 20). You can switch to fidget spinner via a toggle button on the right top. To spin it, just mimic a rotating motion.
There are other quick tools, such as Mediate, Color picker, Metronome, Flip a coin, and Roll a die.
7. Super Mario Bros
If you search ‘Super Mario Bros’, Google will show you a Knowledge Graph containing a flashing “?” block. Clicking it will generate a classic clinking coin sound. And it has a nostalgic surprise that awaits once you have clicked on it at 100 times.
6. Friends Characters
Google has embedded Easter eggs for six characters of a popular American sitcom television series, Friends. If you Google Joey Tribbiani, Rachel Green, Ross Geller, Phoebe Buffay, Monica Geller, and Chandler Bing, you’ll see something unusual in their respective Knowledge Graphs.
Clicking on these ‘unusual elements’ will trigger fun little tricks that take over the standard list of results.
5. I’m feeling curious
Google is a complete boredom buster and not in a time-wasting kind of way. Instead, it helps you build general knowledge and learn interesting facts while having fun.
If you type ‘I’m feeling curious’ or ‘fun facts’ into the search bar, Google will show you a short fact in about one to four sentences along with a source link. You can hit ‘ask another question’ box as many times as you like and get countless interesting facts presented to you.
4. Animal Sounds
Ever wondered what an alpaca sounds like, or a camel? Just search for ‘animal sounds’ and you will be greeted with a set of animals, whose sounds you can play directly in your browser.
3. Do A Barrel Roll
Type ‘Do a barrel roll’ or ‘z or r twice’ into your search bar, and lo and behold, the content on the webpage completes a 360-degree somersault. That is what we call a Google Barrel Roll.
2. Wizard Of Oz
If you peek behind the curtain at Google headquarters, you will likely find many Wizard of Oz fans. And unlike the sham of a wizard in the beloved story, Google does have the power to take you to Oz and back again.
If you search ‘wizard of oz’, Google will display a pair of red slippers. Clicking on them will cause the webpage to spin in a tornado-like effect. Meanwhile, you will hear Judy Garland saying “there is no place like home”.
Once the effect is finished, you will see a vintage webpage and a tornado in the place of red slippers. If you click on the tornado, the page will spin again, and everything will return to its initial condition.
1. Thanos
If you search ‘Thanos’ or ‘Infinity gauntlet’, Google will show a Knowledge Graph with an Infinity Gauntlet on it. Clicking it will cause its fingers to snap, disintegrating half of the search results. Clicking it again restores the previously disintegrated results.
It’s a reference to the Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War in which the supervillain Thanos used the Gauntlet to kill half of the life in the universe. In the second part of the movie, Avengers used the Gauntlet to undo the death and destruction caused by Thanos.
This trick would certainly please all the Marvel fans out there.