List of Google Easter eggs

Google has a tradition of perpetrating April Fool's Day hoaxes, which generally have an intellectual sense of humor.

April Fool's hoaxes

2000: Google MentalPlex

Google announced a new "MentalPlex" search technology that supposedly read the user's mind to determine what the user wanted to search for, thus eliminating the step of actually typing in the search query.

2002: PigeonRank

Google reveals the technology behind its PageRank System — PigeonRank. Google touts the benefits of this cost-effective and efficient means of ranking pages and reassures readers that there is no animal cruelty involved in the process. The article makes many humorous references and puns based on computer terminology and how Google PageRank really works.

Pigeon Rank

2004: Google Lunar/Copernicus Center

Fictitious job opportunities for a research center on the moon. Luna/X (a pun to Linux as well as a reference to both the Windows XP visual style and Mac OS X) is the name of a new operating system they claimed to have created for working at the research center.

Google Copernicus Center

2005: Google Gulp

Google Gulp, a fictitious drink, was announced by Google in 2005. According to the company, this beverage would optimize one's use of the Google search engine by increasing the drinker's intelligence. It was claimed this boost was achieved through real-time analysis of the user's DNA and carefully tailored adjustments to neurotransmitters in the brain (a patented technology termed Auto-Drink). The drink was said to come in "4 great flavors": Glutamate Grape (glutamic acid), Sugar-Free Radical (free radicals), Beta Carroty (beta carotene), and Sero-Tonic Water (serotonin).

This hoax was likely intended as a parody of Google's invite-only email service called Gmail. Although ostensibly free, the company claimed the beverage could only be obtained by returning the cap of a Google Gulp bottle to a local grocery store: a causal loop. In the Google Gulp FAQ, Google replies to the observation "I mean, isn't this whole invite-only thing kind of bogus?" by saying "Dude, it's like you've never even heard of viral marketing."

2006: Google Romance

Google Romance logo

On April Fool's Day 2006, Google Romance was announced on the main Google search page with the introduction, "Dating is a search problem. Solve it with Google Romance." It pretends to offer a "Soulmate Search" to send users on a "Contextual Date". A parody of online dating, it amusingly had a link for "those who generally favor the 'throw enough stuff at the wall' approach to online dating" to Post multiple profiles with a bulk upload file, you sleaze in addition to Post your Google Romance profile. Clicking on either of these gave an error page, which explained that it was an April Fool's joke and included links to previous April Fool's Jokes for nostalgia.

2007: Gmail Paper & Google TiSP

Gmail Paper

How "Gmail Paper" works

At about 10:00 PM Pacific time (where Google has its headquarters) the day before April 1, 2007, Google changed the login page for Gmail to announce a new service called Gmail Paper. The service offered to allow users of Google's free webmail service to add e-mails to a "Paper Archive," which Google would print (on "96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum") and mail via traditional post. The service would be free, supported by bold, red advertisements printed on the back of the printed messages. Image attachments would also be printed on high-quality glossy paper, though MP3 and WAV files would not be printed. The page detailing more information about the service features photographs of Ian Spiro and Carrie Kemper, current employees of Google. Also featured are Product Marketing Managers of Gmail Anna-Christina Douglas, and Kevin Systrom.

Google TiSP

Google TiSP logo

Google TiSP (short for Toilet Internet Service Provider) was a fictitious free broadband service supposedly released by Google. This service would make use of a standard toilet and sewage lines to provide free Internet connectivity at a speed of 8 Mbit/s (2 Mbit/s upload) (or up to 32 Mbit/s with a paid plan). A user would drop a weighted end of a long, Google-supplied fiber-optic cable in their toilet and flush it. Around 60 minutes later, the end would be recovered and connected to the Internet by a "Plumbing Hardware Dispatcher (PHD)." The user would then connect their end to a Google-supplied wireless router and run the Google-supplied installation media on a Windows XP or Vista computer ("Mac and Linux support coming soon"). Alternatively, a user could request a professional installation, in which Google would deploy nanobots through the plumbing to complete the process. The free service would be supported by "discreet DNA sequencing" of "personal bodily output" to display online ads that relate to culinary preferences and personal health. Google also referenced the cola-and-Mentos reaction in their FAQ: "If you're still experiencing problems, drop eight mints into the bowl and add a two-liter bottle of diet soda."

Easter eggs

Various Google services also hide Easter eggs meant to be amusing entertainment.

Searching for "the answer to life, the universe, and everything" will make the Calculator answer 42, a reference to Douglas Adams's novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In order for this Easter egg to be successful the phrase must be entered in lowercase and without the quotation marks.
Google offers services in many languages, including several uncommon ones like Swedish Chef's Bork bork bork, Pig Latin, Hacker (Actually leetspeak), Elmer Fudd, and Klingon.
When asked how to get from a location in North America to a location in Europe or Africa, Google Maps included the instruction "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean",^[1] although it seems to have been removed.
The measurement tool in Google Earth allows users to measure distance in Smoots. This is a fictional unit of length derived from a tradition at MIT.
Taking the term Easter egg literally (and perhaps to celebrate the Easter holiday), Google has an official Easter Eggs page.^[2]

Non-hoaxes

Google has chosen April Fool's Day to announce some of their actual products. This marketing strategy is used to make people think that the product is a hoax and spread the word around, and then to surprise them when they realize that it is real.

Shortly before midnight on March 31, 2004, Google announced^[3] the launch of Gmail. Some believed it was a hoax, because free web-based e-mail with one gigabyte of storage was unheard of at the time.

In 2005, Google increased Gmail storage to two gigabytes and released Google Ride Finder.

On July 20, 2005, the 36th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon, Google debuted a version of Google Maps that included a small segment of the surface of the moon. It is based entirely on NASA images and includes only a very limited region. Panning causes the map to tile. The map also gives the locations of all moon landings, and the Google Moon FAQ humorously mentions a connection to the Google Copernicus hoax, which Google claimed to be developing. Supposedly, by 2069, Google Local will support all lunar businesses and addresses. Zooming to the closest level in Google Moon shows that the moon is made of cheese.

References

External links

"Google's April Fool's Day Jokes" at About.com
"Google's Gmail grows again" at The Register
"Google to offer gigabyte of free e-mail" at CNET
Googlejuice.co.uk Search Engine Research Blog
Google Ride Finder
Google Moon
Google Moon FAQ

Google pages:

[1] Google Maps

[2] Google

[3] Google Press Center: Press Release

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