Google's Star Wars easter egg makes results show far, far away

Google really seems to be getting into the whole Star Wars craze, and after allowing us to choose which side of the Force we prefer, ir presents us some far, far way, easter eggs.

Android pissing on Apple in Google Maps easter egg

We know there's a lot of rivalry between Google and Apple, and their respective fans, but it's not often that we can see that put into actual words - or in this case - in a very descriptive image of an Android pissing on a Apple, in Google Maps.

Pac-Man is eating its way though Google Maps

If you ever wished you could munch your way through traffic when waiting in a traffic line, now you can... at least in a digital way thanks to Google's easter egg on Google Maps, that allows you to turn any map into a Pac-Man level you can play.

7 Secret Google Easter Eggs [Video]

No tech company can be really considered to be one unless they provide some sort of geeky Easter Eggs in order for some to show off their immense knowledge of Google inner workings. Google is no exception, and although you'll most likely know a few of these Google Easter Eggs already, I'm sure there are a few others you didn't know yet.

So, let's take care of that:

• Atari Breakout - searching for Atari Breaktout in Google images allows you to play the classic breakout game using the actual images as "bricks"
• Google in 1998 - makes you travel back in time to that year
• do a barrel roll - self-explanatory...  makes your screen spin around
• Google Map's Pegman becomes a LEGO minifig when you're in Legoland, and an astronaut at Kennedy Space Center
• Bacon Number - placed after a celebrity's name shows us their degree of separation to Kevin Bacon
• Anagram - Google suggest an anagram of anagram
• Zerg Rush - honoring the popular Starcraft game, it invades the screen with a horde of "O's" attacking the search results

Hangouts Easter Eggs

So, you're trying out the new Google Hangouts (which you can already enable in Gmail by the way) and you want something "cool" to show your friends... Google has you covered, as they didn't forget to include some curious hidden easter eggs in the new Hangouts.


For now, these only work on Google+ and the Hangouts Chrome Extension, which means we can't use them  in the mobile version neither during video calls, but... do try them out. You just need to type:

• /ponies - a pony running across the chat
• /pitchforks - angry mob
• /ponystream - several ponies (but showing up only in your own window)
• /bikeshed - changes the background color for everyone
• /shydino - shows up a little shy dinossaur
• konami code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, enter) - changes the local background (and if you have a chromebook pixel, it will also make the multicolored LED bar go into party mode for a while! ;)

Snowball Throwing in Android.com Easter Egg

If you're feeling like throwing up some snow balls, but the weather out there doesn't allow it - as in: no snow around - then you simply need to head up to Android.com and click on the bottom left green Android.

These hidden software features are referred to as "Easter Eggs", and have been around since... well... since programmers first start writing code. Some of them have become really memorable, such as the hidden flight simulator in MS Excel (which might help you understand why sometimes programs use up more than their fair share of megabytes ;P)

Top 10 Open Source Easter Eggs

Hehe2 has compiled a nice list of cool easter eggs in Open Source projects.
Though most of them are quite famous and well-known, you may want to check it our - you never known what you might have missed all these years.

Amarok, Open office, Gnome,  and a few others... go check it out! :)


And don't forget the Robot easter Egg in Firefox.

Firefox 3.0 Robot Easter Egg Explained

If you type:

about:robots

in your Firefox 3.0 address bar, you'll get this:

• Robots may not injure a human or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
• Robots have seen things you people wouldn't believe.
• Robots are Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With.
• Robots have shiny metal posteriors which should not be bitten.

What you might not now is where those phrases come from. But I'm here to help.

The page title "klaatu barada nikto" is from the sci-fi classic The day the Earth Stood Still.

The first phrase is fairly famous. It's the first law of robotics from Asimov.


The second is a reference to Blade Runner's Rutger Hauer monolog known as The Roy Batty Soliloquy.

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I’ve watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

The third one... you should be ashamed for not knowing it:
Does Douglas Adam's Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy rings a bell? It better!


Fouth one: Futurama - “Bite My Shiny Metal Ass!” - Bender
And last but not least: “And they have a plan”
Just watch Galactica's Intro and you'll get it...