Google’s Top 10 Hidden Treasures

google treasures While you are still hunting down Christmas presents, we here at MakeUseOf are already getting into the mood for Easter.

No, not really! But during this stressful pre-holiday season I thought it would be a good idea to spread some laughter.

Since Google is a source for quite a bit of entertainment, I compiled a list of the coolest Google treasures. Here are April Fool’s Day jokes, Easter Eggs, bombs and more in no particular order:

1. Search Google with MentalPlex

google easter egg

Of course this was an April Fool’s Day joke.

2. Search better with Google Gulp

This beta beverage will quench your thirst for knowledge!

It comes in four different flavors: Glutamate Grape, Sugar-Free Radical, Beta Carroty and Sero-Tonic Water.

Since the Google search algorithm cannot be improved, Google released this series of fruity and refreshing smart drinks with auto-drink technology. They are designed to maximize its users surfing experience by making them more intelligent and less thirsty.

Yes, this was an April Fool’s Day joke as well.

3. Search Google for Once in a Blue Moon

Google’s got humor. This is a classic calculator Easter Egg.

google easter egg 2

4. Search Google for the Answer to Life the Universe and Everything

Even funnier, Google calculates MUCH faster than Deep Thought.

google easter egg 4

5. Search Google for the Number of Horns on a Unicorn

google fun facts

Now what I would like to know is how many unicorns are there on Earth? Unfortunately, Google doesn’t calculate THAT.

6. Look at Googleplex Charleston Road in street view mode.

google

Google employees organized their 15 minutes of fame. Browse around the area for more sights.

7. Look at Sampsonia Way in Pittsburgh in street view mode.

This street view was created in cooperation with Google for the Street With A View project.

8. Type about:internets into Google Chrome’s address bar

This will only work with Windows XP as Google Chrome launches the pipes screensaver inside the tab.

The following commands will also work for other operating systems:
about:stats
about:memory
about:network
about:histograms
about:dns
about:cache
about:plugins
about:version

9. Click [CTRL] + [ALT] + [A] in Google Earth to launch a Flight Simulator

Google has released the full keyboard controls for the Flight Simulator here.

10. Type “french military victories” into the search field and click “I’m feeling lucky“

This is a Google bomb where the creator of the above seen results page takes advantage of Google’s ranking system.

Sadly, the well-known Google bombs Failure and Chuck Norris don’t seem to work anymore. And Google also fixed its translator. But there are still lots of hilarious Google-related out there, see what we got for Google on MakeUseOf Geeky Fun.

Do you know of any other Google hidden treasures and easter eggs?

Tagged: fun • geeky fun • Google • Google Chrome • google earth

Tina Sieber

Tina is a freelance writer, editor, natural scientist, and cosmopolitan with a strong interest in sustainability. She has been writing for MakeUseOf since late 2007 and also is the Editor for MakeUseOf Answers.

http://www.m4tt.net Matt Brian

The about:internets one had me laughing, I didn’t know that one.
http://redefinability.blogspot.com deepikaur

Here’s one.. type this into Google and hit enter:

worst band in the world

Simon Mills

lol, nice!

Ben

If you search for:
find Chuck Norris

And hit the “I’m feeling lucky button”, Google returns this:
“Google won’t search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don’t find Chuck Norris, he finds you.”

Mike

doesn’t work now

dazz

u hv to type, “where is chuck norris” and then hit im feeling lucky
Dina

The chuck norris search queary works on the “i’m feeling lucky” search button.. I just tried it.. pretty funny..

xenon

That’s not google though, just the first link returned.

http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/ Speedmaster

LOL, some good stuff in there.
Michelle

they took it away, but for a couple of years you could type “miserable failure” and click “I’m feeling lucky” and you would get the biography of George W. Bush
Michelle

these are hilarious thanks for sharing
I_KNOW

Chuck Norris and Worst Band in the World “tricks” no longer work as described. They were fixed quite some time ago. I think there must be lots of hidden gems in Google that we just don’t know about yet… let’s find them all!

Lovik

both of them still work i have tried it just now..

Mubina

To I_KNOW: “Worst band in the world” still works. I just tried it.

http://www.tinsie.net/Recommended Tina

Doesn’t work for me. First hit is either a You Tube video or the urban dictionary. The latter explains what used to be the result and it no longer works.

harmony

noo… don’t you see that a few lines down it says “see results for creed” ? there are no search keywords in those results, so its an egg from google saying creed is the worst band ever!!

http://ahren.org/code/ Ravi

Perhaps there is some confusion between a genuine Google Easter Eggs or clever parsing of the search query (as in Tina’s post), and Google bombing or natural ordering of results returned by Google based on their PageRank. Searches via “I’m feeling lucky” will return such results (I won’t ask you explicitly to search for the once junior senator from Pennsylvania ) as long as the PageRank is maintained (naturally or artificially), but not guaranteed to always be so.

I hope that is both correct (I could be wrong!) and makes sense…
Howl

Chuck Norris one still works. Just tried it via feeling lucky button

http://www.tinsie.net/Recommended Tina

For me it only works when you enter “find Chuck Norris”. Used to work for just “Chuck Norris” as far as I remember.

Possibly there are differences between Google country versions.

Ivy

Actually the page that shows up isn’t affiliated with Google (or so it says), it’s a spoof page.

Mist

If you go to http://www.google.com/intl/xx-bork/ you can get the Google homepage in Swedish Chef.

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-klingon/ is the homepage in Klingon.
http://media2.pl/felietony/44777-absurdalna-emotikona.html Åukasz

Flight simulator looks great =)
Jessica

I’m sad that you can no longer get “swim across the Atlantic” as one of the steps when you do a Google Directions search for any trans-atlantic destination. I innocently entered a search from Indiana to London just to determine the approximate distance between the two places and got a giggle out of seeing that surprise step. Google Directions doesn’t seem to have that joke anymore.

http://phabin.noncouncil.com/ Phabin

It is indeed sad that isn’t there anymore, I once saw that by accident and had a laugh. But you know how it is, it’s just like warning labels exist… they had to remove it because you know that some would’ve tried it (or already has)

http://gamepig.ru/ Ð¡ÐºÐ°Ñ‡Ð°Ñ‚ÑŒ Ð¼Ð¸Ð½Ð¸-Ð¸Ð³Ñ€Ñ‹

Nice! =)))

http://makeuseof.com Aibek

“Ð¡ÐºÐ°Ñ‡Ð°Ñ‚ÑŒ Ð¼Ð¸Ð½Ð¸-Ð¸Ð³Ñ€Ñ‹”.

Why not to say “download mini games”?

mcm69

Because it’s supposed to be a spam comment

http://gamepig.ru/ Ð˜Ð³Ñ€Ñ‹ ÑÐºÐ°Ñ‡Ð°Ñ‚ÑŒ

Because itâ€™s supposed to be a russian languge blog about mini-games…

http://anangrygeek.blogspot.com Jacob Ford

I love the Ted Stevens reference in the about:internets easter egg!
http://etxerantz.blogspot.com skylark

Perhaps “swim across the Atlantic” is no longer an option, but if you want to go from San Francisco to Tokyo, the suggested itinerary is to drive north to Seattle, then “kayak across the Pacific Ocean,” stopping in Hawaii on the way.

http://www.betterthantherapy.net Mark O’Neill

Ha! Ha! That one is great! Much better than “swim across the Atlantic”!

I’m just waiting for “walk across water” or “proceed by submarine”
http://www.tinsie.net/Recommended Tina

That’s hilarious!! Thanks for sharing skylark!

http://etxerantz.blogspot.com skylark

The calculator works in Smoots, too, but that’s not really a big surprise.
votre nom ici

My personal favorite:
http://www.google.com/tisp/
munkypint

Unfortunately it s been discontinued. Searching “weapons of mass destruction” gave a very funny error page. The link below has it up. Worth the read. I believe the timing was just before the 2nd Gulf war. Very funny page

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/bliraqwmd.htm
http://rockstartemplate.com RockstarTemplate.com

Wow that was a great collection . Im almost a noob in this world wide web . all the thing you listed are really nice .
Mike

Google Reader used to show a link to the End of the Internet when you ran out of subscribed material.
http://www.jacksonpeebles.net Jackson Peebles

I’m personally a fan of Google Pigeon Rank and Google Romance.

I thought the Tokyo directions were really funny, too.
barryc

type elgoog then hit im feeling lucky…
chris

if you put in ”end of internet” theres a hillaryous page.!:]
http://www.legz.fr Leg’Z

Hum… It does nothing special