Google Easter Eggs: And Now For Something Completely Different

If you have ever played computer games you have probably heard of “Easter Eggs.” These are hidden messages, codes, or commands that  can do everything from open up another program, or allow you do to things that aren’t part of the normal game experience. Software programs, DVDs, and all sorts of media have them as well.

Google has a ton. Some are intended to allow you to customize the browser, play games, or direct you to a specific theme or genre of site. Are they useful? Not really, but they’re fun. And I promised early on that this blog would occasionally diverge from talking about medical application of technology and occasionally feature things that are fun.

With the Easter holiday approaching, there seems to be a focus in online articles about the topic of Easter Eggs and specifically Google’s Easter Eggs. After all who can resist the urge to find out about the following:

• Play the Google Egg Drop Game
• Gothic Google
• Elmer Fudd Google
• Pig Latin Google
• Elgoog (backwards Google)
• Fly the Google Earth Flight Simulator
• Make iGoogle do weird things in the middle of the night
• Have the Loch Ness Monster appear on your screen
• Google Klingon
• Get Spam recipes from Gmail (if you access the Spam folder in Gmail, there’s a recipe that appears at the top of the mailbox list – try it!)
• And many more!

Here are a number of online articles and a couple of YouTube videos that give you all the info on all the cool, fun, and odd Google Easter Eggs.

Mashable: 5 Must-See Google Easter Eggs

PCWorld: Google’s Top 17 Easter Eggs, Gags, and Hoaxes (warning, you have to sit through an advertisement before you get to the article, sorry!)

TechRepublic: Google Easter Eggs, Pranks, and Oddities

And here's a couple of videos that illustrate the how-to aspects: 

Google Easter Eggs Video:

And here's one that's a couple years old called Google Tricks and Hacks.

About the Author

Stephen Welch

Senior Vice President, Communications
Executive Editor, CHEST

This blog, "It Ain't Rocket Surgery" is intended to help busy health-care professionals find useful online and mobile resources that will enhance their self-education and professional research efforts, or point out important topics of discussion related to online information and content. The blog's title is a Yogi Berra style mash-up of two common phrases, "it ain't brain surgery" and "it ain't rocket science". I hope it will be casual, fun, insightful, and -- most of all -- educational.

You can follow me on Twitter. 

I currently serve ACCP as the Senior Vice President of Communications, as well as the Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. During my 15 years here, ACCP has focused on growing and developing the editorial, technological, and business aspects of the College. We are constantly striving to make the journal and other ACCP educational content as accessible and useful to clinicians as possible.

When not at work, I like to spend time scuba diving with sharks, collecting original comic book artwork, exploring the digital world, and searching for good BBQ.

Your feedback about the blog is always appreciated. So are tips on good BBQ joints.