Whatever our criticisms of Google, it's part of our internet culture in sometimes weird and wonderful ways. This seems kind of like a little <i>happy dance</i> for the world after so much hand wringing and legitimate worry.
> Easter eggs can be a way for software engineers and designers to put a bit of their own personality into the product through humor and wit. They're a way of saying, 'I made this and I love it.' Their hidden nature means that those who discover them are likely to be people who spend a lot of time using the product.<p>> This act of discovery is great for building an emotional connection between the people who create software products and the people who use them. Finding an Easter egg is a great experience — like finding buried treasure — and sharing that experience can be fun, too. It's a little gift for true fans that goes a long way towards making people feel like they're part of the club.<p><a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/advertising-channels/search/hidden-meaning/" rel="nofollow">https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/advertising-chann...</a><p>Wikipedia has a massive list of Google's Easter eggs:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_Easter_eggs" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_Easter_eggs</a>
Looks like it’s desktop only. On mobile I had to toggle on ‘Request desktop site’ to see the ships scrolling across the top of the search results.<p>Cute Easter egg lol
Makes me wonder if anyone suggested Ever Given "do a barrel roll"[1]<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=do+a+barrel+roll" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=do+a+barrel+roll</a>
These ships also trigger for "did you mean" searches. So, for example, search for "ever givne" or "ever gaven". Google's engine will start "Showing results for ever given". That must mean that the ships are applied after the query is resolved. Clicking "Search instead for ever givne" will take you to the original query's result set which will no longer contain ships.
If you guys enjoy easter eggs, you might like to know about the easter egg subreddit. <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/eastereggs" rel="nofollow">https://old.reddit.com/r/eastereggs</a><p>Full disclosure: I own/run it. Sorry if there are posts about Easter. Our automod config works pretty well but some posts leak through this time of year ;)
why is this on HN frontpage?<p>EDIT - I only mean to say that Google showing this animation is mildly interesting, but there other are far more interesting stories.
Yeah these things no longer cover up the fact that they try to turn you into a serial killer on youtube or that your search results are mostly useless ads