Tuesday, May 10, 2016

17 Hidden Tricks That Show How Goofy Google Is

SHARE
We'd like to apologize in advance to the employers of the world. As if workers weren't distracted by Google easily enough, right? Now they're going to chip into their work days trying all these silly things. But what were we to do? It's Google's fault when you get right down to it. If they hadn't programmed such silliness into their search engine, we wouldn't have this problem.

And you can tell that the good folks at Google have lots of experience destroying free time. There must be legions of dedicated gamers at their offices. You can tell by all the game-related things that have been included in this list. Well, they're fans of many awesome things in general. They might have all the geniuses, but they also know how to be goofy. So much fun!

SHARE these cool hidden tricks today!

1. Festivus

When you want to learn more about Seinfeld's celebration for the rest of us, Google puts up the traditional festivus pole along the side of the screen and happily notifies you that the search results were "A festivus miracle!"

2. Kevin Bacon Number

Everybody has played "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" before. Well, Google has too. If you search for a celebrity and follow it with "bacon number," Google will tell you how many degrees separate them from Mr. Bacon himself. 

3. What Sounds Animals Make

When we were kids, we had that spinning thing where you pulled the cord and it came up with a random animal sound. Now Google does that when you search for the sound a particular animal makes. 

4. Fun Facts

Search for a random "fun fact" (or "I'm feeling curious") and Google will generate one — and you can refresh the page to get a new fact right away.

5. Flip a Coin

Because who carries change anymore, Google will randomly give you a heads-or-tails answer so you can finally decide where to go for lunch.

6. Roll a Die

You might not need to pick between six options that often, but when you do, you'll be glad you knew this.

7. Super Mario Bros.

Searching for "super mario bros" will bring up plenty of information about Nintendo's classic, but the Knowledge Graph card also features a flashing "?" block like you'll find in the game. Click it and you'll hear that signature coin sound effect.

8. Play Solitaire

Just do a search for "solitaire" and Google will let you play a game. It's only the basic game, but hey, solitaire.

9. Tic Tac Toe

If, for some reason, you want to play Tic Tac Toe, go ahead and search it on Google. You can play against a friend or against Google, with different difficulty settings in a drop-down menu. Good luck on Impossible!

10. 42

Somebody at Google is clearly a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, because if you search for "the answer to life, the universe, and everything," you get Douglas Adams's famous answer, 42.

11. Google in 1998

Get a glimpse of the past by searching "Google in 1998." The results will show you what Google's page looked like back in 1998 – isn't it crazy how far they've come?

12. Zerg Rush

StarCraft fans will recognize the term and the resulting effect from searching it, as a series of O's descend from the top of the screen, eating the search results.

13. Do a Barrel Roll

As a shout-out to Nintendo's StarFox 64, you can search "do a barrel roll" or "z or r twice" — the corresponding controller commands from the Nintendo 64 game – to make the screen do a barrel roll.

14. Play Pac-Man

Sort of. Searching for "pacman" will let you play the Google Doodle game it created for Pac-Man's 30th anniversary, just in case you missed it.

15. Atari Breakout

Searching for "Atari Breakout" in a Google Image search will turn the images into the classic Atari game board. Say goodbye to your productivity!

16. Anagram

If you search "anagram," Google will ask if you meant "nag a ram," which is, of course, an anagram of "anagram."

17. Askew

Searching "askew" in Google will give the page just enough of a tilt to make it slightly unsettling.

Just when you thought Google was a heartless mega-corporation bent on owning us all one day, they showed off their softer side, proving they're fans with a sense of humor just like the rest of us. Enjoy! [h/t: Business Insider]

SHARE these cool hidden Google tricks today!

SHARE

Author: verified_user

0 comments: