As the world‘s most popular search engine handling over 8.5 billion searches per day, Google is best known for delivering relevant results to any query in a fraction of a second. But did you know Google Search is also packed with tons of fun Easter eggs waiting to be discovered?
One of the most famous Google Easter eggs is "do a barrel roll." When you type this phrase into the search box, the entire page will do a 360-degree flip! This barrel roll animation is a reference to the 1997 Nintendo game Star Fox 64, where the character Peppy tells protagonist Fox McCloud to "do a barrel roll" during gameplay.
Performing a Google barrel roll is simple. Just follow these steps:
- Go to Google.com in your web browser
- Type "do a barrel roll" into the search box
- Press Enter or click the Google Search button
- Watch as the page rotates 360 degrees!
Alternatively, you can search "z or r twice" (another Star Fox 64 reference) to trigger the same effect. The rollout isn‘t instantaneous—there‘s a slight delay before the barrel roll begins.
Doing 10000 Barrel Rolls on Google
While one barrel roll is entertaining, some users want to crank things up a notch. Wouldn‘t it be cool to make Google barrel roll 10, 100, or even 10000 times? Unfortunately, Google‘s search page doesn‘t natively support multiple barrel rolls. No matter how many times you search "do a barrel roll," you‘ll only get a single 360° spin.
However, clever developers have created websites that allow you to do two or more barrel rolls in Google. The most well-known is elgoog.im, which lets you choose between 1, 10, 20, 100, 500, 1000, or 10000 barrel rolls. Here‘s how to do 10000 barrel rolls with elgoog:
- Open elgoog.im/doabarrelroll in your browser
- Click the "10000" button
- Watch in awe as the page spins 10000 times!
Keep in mind that 10000 barrel rolls will take a LONG time to complete. Expect to wait around 16-17 minutes, depending on your computer‘s hardware. The rapid spinning may also slow down or crash some browsers and devices. If you‘re worried about performance, start with 100 rolls before attempting 1000 or the full 10000.
According to Google Trends data, searches for "do a barrel roll 10000 times" began rising in 2011-2012 after the original Easter egg went viral. Popularity peaked in 2013 and has remained steady since, with an average of 30,000 monthly searches worldwide.
The Story Behind Google‘s "Do a Barrel Roll"
So how did this Star Fox 64 reference end up as a hidden gem within the world‘s most visited website? While Google doesn‘t typically comment on Easter egg backstories, we do know "do a barrel roll" was created in 2011, likely as a side project by a Google software engineer.
According to former Google employee Manu Cornet, many of Google‘s Easter eggs are "jokes from one team member, snuck in late at night and deployed to production secretly." Developers have flexibility to experiment with new features as long as they don‘t negatively impact the core product. Google‘s relaxed corporate culture encourages this kind of creative tinkering.
The barrel roll effect is achieved using CSS3 animations. When the phrase is searched, a snippet of code rotates the
@-webkit-keyframes roll {
from { -webkit-transform: rotate(0deg) }
to { -webkit-transform: rotate(-360deg) }
}While seemingly a basic animation, implementing the barrel roll on Google‘s scale is technically impressive. The search giant receives billions of hits daily across a vast array of devices/browsers, so any new feature must be rigorously tested. A single rogue Easter egg could bring down the site and cost Google millions in lost ad revenue.
When "do a barrel roll" launched, it quickly went viral on social media and tech blogs. People shared videos of themselves doing the barrel roll, racking up millions of views. Some users even made 10-hour-long videos of the animation endlessly looping! This buzz undoubtedly drove significant traffic (and advertising dollars) to Google.
In a 2012 Quora post, Google software engineer Kenton Varda explained the company‘s philosophy on Easter eggs:
"We don‘t have an official policy for creating Easter eggs. In general, they‘re allowed when they‘re fun, cute, and not too disruptive. Most of them are created by individual engineers as side projects, not as official Google products."
From this, we can deduce that Google views Easter eggs as a way to foster innovation, express creativity, and build its quirky brand identity. Including inside jokes reinforces Google‘s geeky company culture and helps them attract top engineering talent.
More Google Easter Eggs to Try
The barrel roll is just one of many "20% time" projects scattered throughout Google‘s services. Engineers are encouraged to devote a portion of their work hours to creative experimentation, which has birthed some of Google‘s most iconic Easter eggs. Here are a few other search tricks to try:
- Askew: Makes the search results page slightly tilted
- Recursion: Shows "Did you mean: recursion" in an infinite loop
- Anagram: Shows "Did you mean: nag a ram"
- Google in 1998: Takes you to a retro version of the Google homepage
- Zerg rush: Unleashes an army of "O"s that eat the search results page
- Festivus: Displays a Festivus pole in the sidebar (only works around December holidays)
There are also Easter eggs hidden beyond the search box. At Google Images, searching "atari breakout" launches a playable Breakout game right in the image results. Over at Google Earth, zooming all the way out displays a fictional planet called "Google Mars."
But Google isn‘t the only tech company known for digital Easter eggs. At Tesla, hitting the logo on the center console brings up a sketch pad for doodling. Swiping the pad reveals a racing game and a Mars rover simulator. Similarly, SpaceX snuck numerous pop culture references into its Crew Dragon capsule, including a "Don‘t Panic" sign and a Baby Yoda plush toy.
The Pros and Cons of Google‘s Easter Eggs
So are Google‘s Easter eggs a valuable addition or a frivolous distraction? That depends on how you look at it. On one hand, the barrel roll and its brethren serve no practical purpose to the end user. Google is investing employee time and resources into gags that don‘t improve its core products or services.
However, Google‘s Easter eggs provide significant intangible benefits. They help establish Google as a fun, irreverent brand and make its services more engaging for users. Someone who discovers "do a barrel roll" is likely to share it with others, generating significant word-of-mouth buzz for Google. Inside jokes build community and give fans a sense of being "in the know."
The Easter eggs also challenge Google‘s engineers to flex their creative muscles and push the boundaries of what‘s possible with web technologies. Pulling off a 10000 barrel roll requires some serious technical chops! Experimentation keeps developers engaged and can inspire new products down the line.
Ultimately, Google‘s Easter eggs are a net positive for the company. They‘re fun, mostly harmless, and reinforce Google‘s geeky brand identity. Few other tech giants (besides maybe Tesla) have the right mix of playfulness and technical prowess to make Easter eggs a core part of their culture.
Key Takeaways
To sum up, here are the key points to remember about Google‘s barrel roll trick:
- Searching "do a barrel roll" on Google makes the whole page spin 360°
- The barrel roll is a reference to the Nintendo 64 game Star Fox 64
- Google‘s search page only does one barrel roll natively
- Sites like elgoog.im let you do multiple barrel rolls, up to 10000 times
- 10000 barrel rolls takes 15+ minutes and may crash some devices/browsers
- "Do a barrel roll" was created by a Google engineer in 2011 as a secret project
- The effect uses CSS3 animations to rotate the page
- Google allows Easter eggs that are fun and not too disruptive
- Easter eggs help Google build its brand and attract top engineering talent
- Google has dozens of other Easter eggs, as do companies like Tesla and SpaceX
- While Easter eggs seem frivolous, they provide real benefits to Google‘s culture
As Google continues to dominate the tech industry, expect to see more delightful surprises emerge from the depths of its codebase. The barrel roll may have kickstarted the trend, but there‘s no telling what Google‘s crafty engineers will dream up next. Perhaps an augmented reality Easter egg or an AI-powered digital scavenger hunt?
For now, we‘ll keep one eye out for the next great "20% project" and the other on the search page… just in case Peppy tells us to do another barrel roll.
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