Below are 5 funniest Google tricks,
What makes funny Google tricks different is — Unlike the Google Search tricks that increase your efficiency and productivity during an online research, these tricks are borne out of the imaginations of some very creative and technically adept minds, and have no use whatsoever outside of our own sheer enjoyment. Makes them kinda like Fine Art in that way, doesn't it, just a little?
Without further ado, 5 More Funny Google Tricks:
1. Google Pirate
2. Google Terminal
3. I’m Feeling Lucky/Doodley/Funny
4. Shire to Mordor
5. The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
Everybody loves to talk like a pirate. There’s even an entire holiday devoted to it, Talk Like a Pirate Day. And Facebook famously made its users laugh with a “Pirate” option in its language settings. Google, not one to be outdone in whimsy, made a pirate mode of its own. Google Pirate is one of a handful of alternate, gag language options built in by the site’s engineers. There are a couple of ways to access it. The easiest is to type “google pirate” into the search bar, and hit “I’m Feeling Lucky.” But you can also go straight there with this link . While some of the key buttons remain the same, some pretty funny pirate-ized mutations pop up in the altered version. The Home page, for your consideration: And in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages), in the space where Google displays the number of results returned, you might get something like this: About 285,000 islands (0.34 winks) . But don’t worry, if it all gets too swashbuckling for ye, if it’s land ye be lubbin’, there’s a button to get back to the King’s English in the bottom right corner.
Before the World Wide Web, a popular way to network over computer was through BBS terminal programs (short for Bulletin Board System). The systems used terminal programs that could display only very simple graphics and text to connect with other users with a phone line or modem. They commonly were used to upload and download information, chat in an online bulletin board (hence the name) or even play games.
BBS terminals were popular through the 1980s, until the growth of the Internet and World Wide Web took over, and for good reason. The interfaces were usually very basic and required great patience for entering text commands.
But masswerk’s recreation of a BBS terminal Google brought a lot of people fond memories, while simultaneously making them grateful for the relative ease of the Internet today. Upon launch, the simulation types in a command to scroll up a rudimentary Google homepage complete with the familiar old modem sounds.
Like a terminal program, you can’t click any links since this is pre-mouse. Instead all commands are done by entering “Option Code Numbers” or by pressing any key to scroll to the next page. It’s completely functional, but you really wouldn’t want to use it. Search terms bring up results after a long delay, indicated by a line of scrolling periods along the bottom of the page. Hitting a number for a corresponding link takes you out of the BBS to the actual website. Pushing the limits of the BBS terminal Google’s usability, though, is the Google Images version. Results appear one at a time, recreated with jumbles of green letters and numbers forming an extremely rough version of the image.
The I’m Feeling Lucky button was a quirky, sometimes helpful feature that would take the user to the first search result that Google came up with, skipping the rest of the results. You could argue neither of the buttons is all that necessary anymore, as so often Googling is reduced to a search bar and hitting “enter.” But the I’m Feeling Lucky button in particular has become antiquated since the development of Google Instant in 2010. When the results appear below the search as the user types, there’s really not much luck involved in jumping right to the first suggestion. So Google built in a series of new “Feelings” users can explore besides lucky. Hover over the Lucky button, and it will spin like a slot machine to one of several other impulses. Clicking the button will take the user to a relevant Google project.
Here are a handful of examples:
• Clicking I’m Feeling Trendy will take you to Google’s trending searches.
• I’m Feeling Stellar links to Google Earth’s collection of Hubble Telescope space images.
• I’m Feeling Playful takes you to one of the interactive Google Doodles.
• I’m Feeling Doodley connects to a random Google Doodle.
• I’m Feeling Artistic leads to a random collection in the Google Art Project, a gallery of art images collected from 151 partners across 40 countries.
Think you’re excited for Peter Jackson’s new adaptations of the The Hobbit? Not as excited as the people at Google, I bet. As anyone who has perused the Google Doodles of Astro Boy, Jules Verne and DC Comics, people who work at Google are geeks—maybe the biggest geeks of all.
Sometimes that pocket-protectorish sense of humor shines through in the numerous Easter eggs tucked away in the pages of Google’s applications and search results. Case in point: Google walking directions from The Shire to Mordor.
If you go to the Google Maps directions page, select walking directions, and enter “The Shire” as the start, and “Mordor” as the destination, the answer is an inside joke for both Tolkien fans and Internet meme enthusiasts: Or here: We Googled it for you already.
“Use caution – One does not simply walk into Mordor.” What’s so funny? ZOMG fiiine I’ll explain it. In the first installment of Peter Jackson’s The Lordof the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, there’s a dramatic scene in which Sean Bean’scharacter Boromir makes a speech warning aboutthe dangers behind the plan to cast the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. He says: “One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly.” As will happen, an Internet meme was born. Messages boards across the web were filled with photoshopped images of Sean Bean in different modes of transportation, with variations of the caption “one does not simply walk into Mordor.” Hilarity ensued, with “one does not simply drive into Mordor,” “one does not simply pogo into Mordor” and my favorite “one does not simply wok into Mordor.” But Google Maps, you have out-geeked them all.
Ask Google, “What is the answer to life, the universe and everything? “, and the all-knowing search engine will give the accurate response: 42.
In the radio shows and the novels, an ongoing plotline involves a race of super-beings trying to discover the answer to life, the universe and everything. They create a supercomputer called Deep Thought that runs calculations for 7.5 million years before spitting out the answer 42. There’s an ensuing effort to then create a supercomputer that can provide the question to life, the universe and everything, but it’s a long story so just go read the books. They’re hilarious.
By typing the question into the search bar, the Google calculator application pops up at the top of the screen, with the number 42 displayed as the answer. The first search result below that is the Wikipedia entry for the number 42, in which the Douglas Adams books are mentioned right away.
What’s the significance of the number itself? Douglas Adams has said in interviews that there is none. He just picked a random number. There is one real-life connection between Google and the famed number. Eric Schmidt’s office on the Google campus is referred to as Building 42.
What makes funny Google tricks different is — Unlike the Google Search tricks that increase your efficiency and productivity during an online research, these tricks are borne out of the imaginations of some very creative and technically adept minds, and have no use whatsoever outside of our own sheer enjoyment. Makes them kinda like Fine Art in that way, doesn't it, just a little?
Without further ado, 5 More Funny Google Tricks:
1. Google Pirate
2. Google Terminal
3. I’m Feeling Lucky/Doodley/Funny
4. Shire to Mordor
5. The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
1. Google Pirate:
Everybody loves to talk like a pirate. There’s even an entire holiday devoted to it, Talk Like a Pirate Day. And Facebook famously made its users laugh with a “Pirate” option in its language settings. Google, not one to be outdone in whimsy, made a pirate mode of its own. Google Pirate is one of a handful of alternate, gag language options built in by the site’s engineers. There are a couple of ways to access it. The easiest is to type “google pirate” into the search bar, and hit “I’m Feeling Lucky.” But you can also go straight there with this link . While some of the key buttons remain the same, some pretty funny pirate-ized mutations pop up in the altered version. The Home page, for your consideration: And in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages), in the space where Google displays the number of results returned, you might get something like this: About 285,000 islands (0.34 winks) . But don’t worry, if it all gets too swashbuckling for ye, if it’s land ye be lubbin’, there’s a button to get back to the King’s English in the bottom right corner.
2. Google Terminal:
What would Google have looked like in the 1980s? That’s what Austrian web design firm mass:werk decided to find out by recreating the Google homepage in the style and function of an early form of computer networking.Before the World Wide Web, a popular way to network over computer was through BBS terminal programs (short for Bulletin Board System). The systems used terminal programs that could display only very simple graphics and text to connect with other users with a phone line or modem. They commonly were used to upload and download information, chat in an online bulletin board (hence the name) or even play games.
BBS terminals were popular through the 1980s, until the growth of the Internet and World Wide Web took over, and for good reason. The interfaces were usually very basic and required great patience for entering text commands.
But masswerk’s recreation of a BBS terminal Google brought a lot of people fond memories, while simultaneously making them grateful for the relative ease of the Internet today. Upon launch, the simulation types in a command to scroll up a rudimentary Google homepage complete with the familiar old modem sounds.
Like a terminal program, you can’t click any links since this is pre-mouse. Instead all commands are done by entering “Option Code Numbers” or by pressing any key to scroll to the next page. It’s completely functional, but you really wouldn’t want to use it. Search terms bring up results after a long delay, indicated by a line of scrolling periods along the bottom of the page. Hitting a number for a corresponding link takes you out of the BBS to the actual website. Pushing the limits of the BBS terminal Google’s usability, though, is the Google Images version. Results appear one at a time, recreated with jumbles of green letters and numbers forming an extremely rough version of the image.
3. How Are You Feeling Today?
Google decided to breathe new life into the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button in 2012, by turning it into a serendipitous way to explore its many services. Since the early days of Google, there were two main buttons: Google Search and I’m Feeling Lucky.The I’m Feeling Lucky button was a quirky, sometimes helpful feature that would take the user to the first search result that Google came up with, skipping the rest of the results. You could argue neither of the buttons is all that necessary anymore, as so often Googling is reduced to a search bar and hitting “enter.” But the I’m Feeling Lucky button in particular has become antiquated since the development of Google Instant in 2010. When the results appear below the search as the user types, there’s really not much luck involved in jumping right to the first suggestion. So Google built in a series of new “Feelings” users can explore besides lucky. Hover over the Lucky button, and it will spin like a slot machine to one of several other impulses. Clicking the button will take the user to a relevant Google project.
Here are a handful of examples:
• Clicking I’m Feeling Trendy will take you to Google’s trending searches.
• I’m Feeling Stellar links to Google Earth’s collection of Hubble Telescope space images.
• I’m Feeling Playful takes you to one of the interactive Google Doodles.
• I’m Feeling Doodley connects to a random Google Doodle.
• I’m Feeling Artistic leads to a random collection in the Google Art Project, a gallery of art images collected from 151 partners across 40 countries.
4. Directions from The Shire to Mordor:
Think you’re excited for Peter Jackson’s new adaptations of the The Hobbit? Not as excited as the people at Google, I bet. As anyone who has perused the Google Doodles of Astro Boy, Jules Verne and DC Comics, people who work at Google are geeks—maybe the biggest geeks of all.
Sometimes that pocket-protectorish sense of humor shines through in the numerous Easter eggs tucked away in the pages of Google’s applications and search results. Case in point: Google walking directions from The Shire to Mordor.
If you go to the Google Maps directions page, select walking directions, and enter “The Shire” as the start, and “Mordor” as the destination, the answer is an inside joke for both Tolkien fans and Internet meme enthusiasts: Or here: We Googled it for you already.
“Use caution – One does not simply walk into Mordor.” What’s so funny? ZOMG fiiine I’ll explain it. In the first installment of Peter Jackson’s The Lordof the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, there’s a dramatic scene in which Sean Bean’scharacter Boromir makes a speech warning aboutthe dangers behind the plan to cast the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. He says: “One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly.” As will happen, an Internet meme was born. Messages boards across the web were filled with photoshopped images of Sean Bean in different modes of transportation, with variations of the caption “one does not simply walk into Mordor.” Hilarity ensued, with “one does not simply drive into Mordor,” “one does not simply pogo into Mordor” and my favorite “one does not simply wok into Mordor.” But Google Maps, you have out-geeked them all.
5. The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt is a big fan of the British sci-fi writer Douglas Adams, and his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy stories. The cult series of radio shows, television shows and novels has a religious following, for its mix of humor, imagination and absurdity. So it’s fitting that Google engineers build in at least one Douglas Adams Easter egg.Ask Google, “What is the answer to life, the universe and everything? “, and the all-knowing search engine will give the accurate response: 42.
In the radio shows and the novels, an ongoing plotline involves a race of super-beings trying to discover the answer to life, the universe and everything. They create a supercomputer called Deep Thought that runs calculations for 7.5 million years before spitting out the answer 42. There’s an ensuing effort to then create a supercomputer that can provide the question to life, the universe and everything, but it’s a long story so just go read the books. They’re hilarious.
By typing the question into the search bar, the Google calculator application pops up at the top of the screen, with the number 42 displayed as the answer. The first search result below that is the Wikipedia entry for the number 42, in which the Douglas Adams books are mentioned right away.
What’s the significance of the number itself? Douglas Adams has said in interviews that there is none. He just picked a random number. There is one real-life connection between Google and the famed number. Eric Schmidt’s office on the Google campus is referred to as Building 42.
.gif)
