Contents
- 1. Rolling in the Deep
- 2. Zerg are Rushing Everywhere!
- 3. Anagrams Galore
- 4. Gravity-defying Awesomeness
- 5. It Can Tell You About K E R N I N G
- 6. Paradoxical Searches are Common
- 7. Pac-Man Returns
- 8. One Does Not Simply…
- 9. The Elusive Number 42
- 10. Tilted Views
- 11. Goglogo – Your Very Own Google
- 12. Beatboxing by Google
- 13. I’m So Very Lonely
- 14. 00101011101010110101
- 15. Snakes, Dragons, and Dinosaurs
- 16. The Loch Ness Monster is Waiting for You
- Troubleshooting
Do you know what Google is? If you don’t, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate your decision to live under a rock.
Chances are you happened here through a Google search (which is the main focus of these Google tricks mentioned here).
The search engine is the biggest in the world, with billions of searches happening every day. Your experience with Google’s search site is probably quite basic.
You visit the website, type in what you want and leave the main search engine to browse through the results.
Well, you can do a lot more than just search for things. Google has become notorious for including many different nifty tricks in their search site.
Some of these are time gated, others hide themselves in Doodles, and some are quite difficult to access. They all share a common factor, though.
Each of them is incredibly fun to use and experience. If you haven’t seen the items on this list yet, you should try them out as soon as you can.
1. Rolling in the Deep
Have you ever wanted to do a barrel roll? You’ve probably seen airplanes doing it at shows. It is a fun little stunt that is absolutely wonderful to experience.
Well, Google can do it too! All you have to do is open up your browser and visit your local Google search site. Once you get there, click on the search box and type “do a barrel roll” in.
Click on search and watch as the contents of your brows rotate a complete circle around a fixed point. That’s right, Google Search can do a real live barrel roll for you to enjoy!
The barrel roll maneuver wasn’t always a part of the search engine’s repertoire of cool Google tricks, though. It was included as a way of paying homage to a classic series of games – Star Fox, by Nintendo.
In this game, you are instructed by your mentor, a rabbit called Peppy who moonlights as a fighter ace to perform a barrel roll so that you can shake off some enemy fire headed your way. Get on Google and start rolling now!
2. Zerg are Rushing Everywhere!
Have you ever played the Starcraft video game series? It is one of the most popular games ever created. Played by tens of thousands of players to this day, there is a strange allure to it.
Even if you don’t like science fiction this is a game capable of sucking you in and binding you to it. It is a real-time strategy game in which you explore planets in the universe and wage war against alien races.
One of these races is called the Zerg. Closely resembling insects, this race makes use of Zerglings (little troops that are present in great numbers) to eat everything in the vicinity.
Google has created a way for even a modern day player to experience the world of Starcraft in all its classic strategic glory.
All you have to do is get online and Google the phrase “zerg rush”, then hit Enter.
The search results display themselves as usual, but strange things begin to happen. The colorful O’s in GOOGLE come to life and act like little zerg lings.
They begin to eat every other word on your results screen. Click on them to destroy them before you have only a blank space left!
3. Anagrams Galore
Do you know what an anagram is? Try solving this word or making sense of it: “packer”. An anagram is a word that hides as another word or a combination of them.
It’s a fun part of the English Language, and Google has decided to have a little fun with anyone searching for the definition of the word.
If you were to go on the search engine and look for “anagram”, you’d be shown the normal search results with one exception.
In the suggested words at the top of the results, Google will cheekily ask you this: “Did you mean ‘Nag a Ram’?”.
If you’re a little clueless, try rearranging the letters. Nag A Ram is an anagram that can be reshuffled to form the word anagram!
4. Gravity-defying Awesomeness
Ever heard of the awesome Google gravity tricks available on the site? If you haven’t, don’t be surprised. Not many people know of it.
This is a fun little trick that will probably annoy you if you do it too often. When you perform this secret Easter egg in Google, your entire search screen collapses on itself!
Whatever virtual glue held the headers and footers and logos in place disappears. All the little bits and pieces fall down to the bottom of the page, shattering as they go.
It is incredibly fun to see and do. You can then use your mouse to play with the broken bits by dragging them around.
You can play around with Google gravity pretty easily.
Just go to the Google site and type “Google Gravity” in the search box. Click on “I’m Feeling Lucky” (the button on the right side, not the Google Search Button).
This will take you to the Gravity version of the site, where everything falls down.
The cool thing about this trick is that you can still search for things, sign in, access your Gmail and Contacts and more if you can actually figure out where the buttons to do all those things are in the big jumbled pile of elements now laying on the bottom of the page.
5. It Can Tell You About K E R N I N G
Kerning is a part of the English language that involves including spaces between the letters of a word.
If you go on the Google site and search for the term “kerning”, all of the search results that display have a cheeky little feature in them: every mention of the word Kerning looks like it has been kerned, like this: K E R N I N G
It isn’t a lot of fun, but it is still one of the numerous Google tricks and secrets you probably didn’t know about till now!
6. Paradoxical Searches are Common
Have you ever heard of the term “recursion”? It is defined as a process that repeats itself over and over again without end.
Basically, it is a loop with no end. Google loves playing games with your mind.
Search for the word “recursion” on Search. You’ll get the definition and the other results, with a correction above the page, asking, “Did you mean: recursion?”.
Clicking on it will bring you to the same results, with the same message displayed on them. This repeats for as long as you can keep clicking on it!
7. Pac-Man Returns
If you’re a millennial, or you were born in that glorious period of time when the local video game arcade was the place to be in town on a Friday evening, you’re lucky.
One of the most popular games in any arcade back in the day was Pac-Man. Originally called Puck Man but changed later because people would alter the P, this was an instant classic.
People were addicted to it, trying to get the little-animated character to eat all the blips before the ghosts got to him. Well, Google Search has its own way of paying tribute to the original game.
In May 2010, the Google Doodle (the animated logo on the Google search site) was changed to become a tiny, working Pac-Man minigame.
You can access it right now by going on the Google Doodles page and clicking on Insert Coin. Play and get the new High Score!
8. One Does Not Simply…
The Lord of the Rings is one of the defining movie trilogies of the generation.
It is probably one that will last through the ages. We all know that the employees at Google love paying tribute to the most classic examples of fandom that are out there right now (perhaps because they’re all a bunch of crazy nerds?!).
Well, if you’ve seen the movies, you’ve probably heard of the Black Land of Mordor, den of all evil.
In the Fellowship of the Ring, the good guys plan to go into Mordor to destroy the One Ring. Boromir, a human Captain, says, “One does not simply walk into Mordor”. A line that quickly evolved into a hugely popular meme.
Back when Google Maps first started including Walking Directions in their site functions, this was a feature.
If you went on the Google Maps site and chose “Get Directions”, then selected your starting point as either Rivendell or the Shire, and your end point as Mordor, a result wouldn’t appear.
However, a warning would pop up: Caution: One Does Not Simply Walk into Mordor. Yeah, that’s right. Of all the Google tricks and secrets, this is one of the nerdiest out there.
9. The Elusive Number 42
Way back when there was a movie that came out called A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
It was based on the book of the same name and was one of the most awesome sci-fi titles ever. With roaring adventure and a ton of fun, this was definitely another prime target for Google tricks.
One of the most memorable quotes was the answer to the question: “What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?”. Well, Google knows what it is!
Simply go to your browser and type in the question word for word as you see it written above. Click on Search and watch as the first result on the page is….42.
For some reason, the Calculator plugin for the Google Search site appears and displays this number. As everyone who has seen the movie or read the book knows, this is the “answer” to the question when asked by the protagonist.
10. Tilted Views
Do you like the barrel roll idea at the top of this list? You’re going to love this one.
Go on your google search page and type the word “askew”.
When you press enter, your search results will pop up, with one major difference. The entire page is going to be tilted a few degrees clockwise!
That’s right, the entire screen will have tilted a little compared to your display. If you want to get out of this feature, you just have to press the back button.
Don’t worry. You haven’t done anything wrong!
11. Goglogo – Your Very Own Google
Everyone wants to have their very own version of the internet dedicated to them. Well, Google has given you the ability to change the Google logo that you know so well into something of your own design.
No matter what it is, this is your chance to have it displayed on the main Google search page of your browser.
All you have to do is go on Search and type in the word “goglogo”. Hit the I’m Feeling Lucky button. A box will appear for you to enter text into. Type in whatever you want, and watch as the main Google search page has its logo changed to whatever it was you typed!
12. Beatboxing by Google
Have you ever heard someone beatboxing? It takes an incredible amount of skill to make those noises.
Your throat and mouth, as well as your tongue, need to work in union to produce some insane beats. Well, turns out that Google Translate can do the same thing, and it doesn’t even have a human voice!
All you have to do is type this string of words into https://translate.google.com : “pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk kkkkkkkkkk”. You can try out other combinations of words, each of which can vary slightly from this one
Set the translation from English to German. Then, click on the little loudspeaker icon under the translated sentence. The electronic voice will drop some pretty sick beats!
13. I’m So Very Lonely
This one is pretty funny.
Go to your Google search page and type in: “What is the loneliest number?”.
The results will have the Google Calculator widget at the very top, displaying the number one, all on its own.
This is both cute and a little sad at the same time. Even Google knows that being a party of one is a lonely life.
Not that there is anything wrong with being on your own, of course. Everyone needs some time to themselves at some point during their lives!
14. 00101011101010110101
Do you have any idea what that string of numbers means? No? Neither do we.
If you go to Google and look for the word Binary, you get the normal search results back. However, the little counter at the top that displays the number of results that it returned changes.
Instead of showing you the real number, it displays the value in binary digits! This might not excite the majority of you, but there are programmers out there who will really appreciate some of the more technical Google tricks.
15. Snakes, Dragons, and Dinosaurs
This is a three part set of games that you can play on different Google applications.
If you’re on YouTube and you’re sick of waiting for that amazing 4K video to buffer up, just play a classic game of Snake while you wait!
Press the arrow keys while the video is paused and you can use the keys to move a snake around the frame of the video. It’s fun and pretty awesome!
For dragons, you have to venture into the dangerous world of Google Docs.
If you go to the Sheets feature, at sheets.google.com, and then press the Shift key and the F12 key at the same time, you will be able to kill a dragon, and then be congratulated for it like the hero that you are!
Dinosaurs are running rampant through the Chrome Browser.
If you use Chrome on your phone or PC, simply turn off your Wi-Fi connection or internet connection.
Open up a new tab, and watch as the “Network Error” page turns into a fun little game where you have to guide a dinosaur through the landscape. It is a sidescrolling platformer, rather like Mario, and can lead to hours of fun for everyone!
16. The Loch Ness Monster is Waiting for You
One of the last Google hidden tricks can be found in the iGoogle theme for Chrome Browsers.
It isn’t available for everyone.
If you happen to use this theme, all you need to do is stay awake till 3:14 in the morning. At this precise time, the Loch Ness Monster will appear on the theme for a split second before being swept away by the waves.
It isn’t a trick that you can make use of at any time, but it is still pretty cool!
Troubleshooting
If you’re having trouble getting the searches done right while trying to access the tricks we have shown you here, you probably need to turn your instant search off.
There is a very simple way to do this. Just follow the steps below and you should be able to easily turn it off. You can turn it on again in the same way.
Remember that instant can be very useful at times, so it is in your best interest to keep it turned on whenever you are able to.
- Go to https://www.google.com/
- At the bottom right corner of the screen, click on “Settings”
- Click on Search Settings (the first option)
- The second row is called Google Instant predictions
- Click on the checkbox that says “Never Show Instant Results”
- Click Save at the bottom of the page
You should be good to go. All you need to do now is go to your Google site and start using the many awesome features, secrets, and tricks that we have told you about today.
These are just 16 of the many different Google tricks that you can play around with in your spare time.
Take the time to explore the search engine fully and there is a good chance that it will surprise you more than you can imagine.
If you have some other suggestions for cool google secrets that we haven’t mentioned in the list, we can’t wait to hear them!
Let us know in the comments below how exactly we can access the most awesome features that Google has to offer.
Remember to stay alerted and always keep hunting! Also, if you think that there should be an alteration to this list, let us know by dropping a comment!