Google’s Colorful Easter Eggs

If you’re a pirate, the kind that might have a parrot on your shoulder, you may find using search engines frustrating. Few serve your unique language needs, such as the transposition of your common linking verbs and the unique application of determiners (e.g. “She is searching Google” becomes “She be searchin’ the Google, Arrr!”).

Take heart, because Google has hidden a surprise just for you. First, you need to turn off Google’s instant search feature. On the Google homepage, click the gear in the upper right, select “Search settings,” scroll down to “Google Instant,” select “Do not use Google Instant,” save your preferences, and you’re ready to go. Search for “xx-pirate” and click “I’m Feeling Lucky.” You should see all of your options change into a lexicon more familiar and comprehensible. The confusing use of “Images” becomes “Engravin’s.” “Maps” goes away, because what proper seafarer can’t navigate by the stars?

Several Easter eggs like this one can be found on Google.  Easter eggs are fun things hidden away and waiting for the unlikely moment when users stumble upon them through key combinations, mouse clicks and unique searches. I’m certain there are some so cleverly hidden that they live only in the self-satisfied minds of the developers.

Like their namesakes when hidden for toddlers, some Easter eggs are easy to find. Search for “recursion” and Google asks, “Did you mean: recursion,” and looking for “once in a blue moon” will tell you that it’s equivalent to 1.16699016 × 10^-8 hertz. Others are harder to find: Directions in Google Maps from Japan to China advise you to “Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean.”

With the advent of instant search, there are fewer Google Easter eggs found by accident than there once were, but I doubt they’ll ever go away completely.

Now, with instant search off, type “find Chuck Norris” and click “I’m Feeling Lucky.”