TORONTO – When you think of Easter festivities you may imagine children frolicking through the backyard, eagerly looking for chocolate eggs. But kids shouldn’t have all the fun.
The Internet is just like a backyard Easter egg hunt – if you swap the greenery for a plethora of cat videos – but instead of chocolate, you are hunting for quirky little jokes buried within web developers’ code.
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“Easter Eggs” – of the non-edible variety – are inside jokes, hidden messages or special features that can be hidden within computer programs, video games and even movies.
Videogame cheat codes are a good example of how Easter eggs can be used. Computer programmers often hide Easter eggs that simply display messages – like this one on the “Easter egg” Wikipedia page.
Over the years developers have had a lot of fun hiding detailed and entertaining eggs all over the web – so why not ditch the chocolate and have a geeky Easter egg hunt this year.
Google’s barrel roll
Users who type in a search for “Do a barrel roll” into Google search will literally see their page do a 360 degree turn. Or, type in “askew” to Google search to reveal an off-kilter page view.
Konami Code
Most videogame aficionados are familiar with this infamous gaming sequence (↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A) – but it has earned its place as one of the Internet’s most beloved Easter eggs.
Developers have hidden the command in many popular websites.
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If you type the command on Buzzfeed’s page, for example, this is what you’ll get:
Zerg Rush
Try typing “Zerg Rush” into the Google search bar – yellow and red Os posing as zerglings will start attacking the search page, just like in the strategy game Starcraft.
Mozilla’s bible
Try typing “about:mozilla” into Mozilla’s Firefox browser bar to uncover the Mozilla gospel.
The (Kevin) Bacon count
Do you love Kevin Bacon as much as Google does? Type a celebrity’s name and “bacon number” into Google’s search bar to see how many degrees away from Kevin Bacon they are.
Facebook’s globe
You know the little globe icon – better known as your notification’s tab – located at the top right corner of your Facebook page? It changes depending on where you are in the world.
Here’s what it looks like in Europe:
And here’s what it looks like in Canada:
Switch up Google’s native tongue
Try going to this URL instead of the same old Google.ca “www.google.com/webhp?hl=xx-pirate” – because web searches are more fun in pirate slang.
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