Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Black Friday
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Codes
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Affiliate links
    • Meet the team
    • Community guidelines
    • About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$32.49
Subscribe now
Don't miss these
An egg in a freezer, which is a bad place to put eggs.
Games Game developers have suddenly become obsessed with eggs for some reason, and you can play two ovoid games for free right now
Bing Bong being held
Sim Peak devs admit they've been speaking through Bing Bong, but not anymore: 'Anyone claiming that the devs are joining them through Bing Bong, or any other way, they are full of sh*t'
Final Fantasy Tactics intro cinematic
Final Fantasy Holy baloney Batman: Final Fantasy Tactics genius/maniac proves that Chocobos canonically believe in god
Escape From Duckov - A duck with sunglasses and a pistol stands on a wood platform looking over a lot of shipping containers.
Action Duck-themed extraction shooter Escape From Duckov sold 500,000 Steam copies in its first 3 days
Eric Barone Photoshopped onto the head of Hornet, Silksong's protagonist
Action Stardew Valley's Eric Barone is in the Hollow Knight: Silksong credits for voicing a mystery character
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Gako locations - Snake in Gako mask
Action All Gako locations in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
A screenshot of Helldivers 2, depicting a Helldiver saluting while wearing an anthropomorphic facemask
Action It's Helldivers 2's Liberty Day, so break out your shovels and play Arrowhead's patriotic new Whack-a-Terminid browser game before it's gone
A person holding a phone in the future
RPG Wordle comes to Cyberpunk 2077, only it's better because it accepts Night City slang like 'CHOOM' and 'GONKS'
a bunny watches a, um, i want to say a cat man thing, playing a ukelele of some sort behind her
Games A singing axolotl and a magical bunny team up in Billie Bust Up, a retro platformer with rhythmic boss battles and witchy movement abilities
A screenshot of the Google Preferred Sources window with PC Gamer selected, over the top of a Google Search for Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Gaming Industry Google now lets you choose who you trust for your gaming news—here's how to support PC Gamer and other human-made content
A man in a mask
Games How well do you know Kojima game character names? Take our quiz to see if we should start calling you Smart Quizman
A duck points a submachinegun into a porta potty in Escape From Duckov.
Third Person Shooter After making 1 million sales, Escape From Duckov makes eating poop less nutritious
Escape From Duckov - A duck in a swat helmet runs away from a red bird with a butcher knife
Third Person Shooter Escape From Duckov might look like a parody, but it's a full-fledged, full-featured singleplayer bottling of extraction shooter juice
Codename Eagle
FPS Battlefield had a messy predecessor, Codename Eagle, that predates even DICE’s involvement in the series
An argonian walks down an empty street in one of Morrowind's towns
RPG 'Because no one was paying attention we could just put anything into the game,' says the writer responsible for sneaking The Lusty Argonian Maid into Morrowind
Popular
  • Essential Hardware
  • Top 100
  • PC Gaming Show
  • Arc Raiders
  • BF6
  • Quizzes
  1. Software

Tired Of Doing Barrel Rolls? 22 Google Easter Eggs You HAVEN'T Heard About

Features
By Brad Chacos ( Maximum PC ) published 22 November 2011

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

"Do a barrel roll" ain't Google first barrel roll. That honor goes to the deeper-than-you'd-think flight simulator buried inside of Google Earth. It used to be a hidden feature accessed by pressing Crtl + Alt + A, but newer versions let you access it from the Tools menu.

Page 1 of 22
Page 1 of 22

Look in the lower-right corner at Google Maps' pegman. Or should we say PENGUINMAN? In a remote stretch of Antarctic land, pegman does his best "Danny Devito in Batman" impression and goes native. Check it out for yourself.

Page 2 of 22
Page 2 of 22

Google's calculator function has dimensions for all kinds of joke units, including donkeypower, Potrzebie, "number of horns on a unicorn," and how often "once in a blue moon" occurs. My favorite, of course, is "beard second," which Wikipedia says is "a unit of length inspired by the light-year, but used for extremely short distances such as those in nuclear physics." How long is 1 beard second? You gotta Google it to find out.

Page 3 of 22
Page 3 of 22

We love minigames, and we love YouTube, so YouTube's "Snake" minigame makes us swoon. Just play/pause a video, then immediately press the up and left arrows on your keyboard. Presto! Now don't hit a wall or run the snake into itself. This doesn't work on embedded videos, only on YouTube itself.

Page 4 of 22
Page 4 of 22

Simple and funny: searching for "Askew" turns the screen askew. You get the same result searching for "Tilt."

Page 5 of 22
Page 5 of 22

Chrome may be Google's baby, but you can still find a Firefox logo doing a crop circle impression in Google Earth by flying to 45° 7'25.87"N 123° 6'48.97"W

Page 6 of 22
Page 6 of 22

Geeky fun: searching for "Ascii art" transforms the Google logo into ascii.

Page 7 of 22
Page 7 of 22

Even Picasa gets in on the Easter egg fun: press Crtl + Shift + Y and you'll see a bear. Do it over and over again and you'll see a veritable army of bears!

Page 8 of 22
Page 8 of 22

More Google calculator oddities: try searching for "The answer to life, the universe and everything" or "The loneliest number." We love Douglas Adams references!

Page 9 of 22
Page 9 of 22

It doesn't happen every time, but a user named Michael Smith on Technocrat.net pointed us towards the fact that trying to get directions from one continent to another sometimes results in odd Google Maps directions. Try to get directions from Clarence St, Brunswick East VIC 3057, Australia to W 73rd St, New York, New York, New York 10023, United States and you'll be told to kayak across two different oceans!

Page 10 of 22
Page 10 of 22

Oh, those cheeky Googlers: the caption speaks for itself.

Page 11 of 22
Page 11 of 22

Finding the Firefox logo in Google Earth is cool, but finding the KFC colonel's logo is finger-lickin' awesome. Fly to these coordinates: 37°38'46.50"N 115°45'2.98"W

Page 12 of 22
Page 12 of 22

You may know that you can change Google's default language to nifty things like Sesame Street's Swedish chef. But did you know that searching for "xx-pirate", "xx-klingon", "xx-bork," "xx-piglatin" and "600673" brings up the landing pages for those themes?

Page 13 of 22
Page 13 of 22

Who says aliens aren't real? Boot up Google Earth and bring up the "Mars" planetary feature, then fly to "Meliza." You'll be taken to a chat conversation with a real live Martian whose name and responses are curiously similar to Eliza's, a famous chat bot.

Page 14 of 22
Page 14 of 22

You know porn -- um, "Incognito" -- mode in Chrome? Sure you do. But have you ever actually read its warning?

Page 15 of 22
Page 15 of 22

Take a trip over to the Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View to catch a glimpse of the Street View team.

Page 16 of 22
Page 16 of 22

You might have tuned out the Google Ads around your Gmail account by now, but if you check out the ad at the top of your "Spam" inbox, you might just find yourself delighted by a delicious Spam recipe.

Page 17 of 22
Page 17 of 22

That wacky pegman! He transmogrifies into a Lego version of pegman if you visit Lego Land in Carlsbad, California. Make a point of checking him out on holidays, too.

Page 18 of 22
Page 18 of 22

If you try sending a text message of more than 320 characters in Google Voice, the word count changes to "Really?" And we happen to agree with it. Image credit: techworld.com

Page 19 of 22
Page 19 of 22

Less an Easter egg than a super-cool Google Bomb (Google the term if you need to), try an "I'm feeling lucky" search for "Find Chuck Norris". Even Google fears the beard!

Page 20 of 22
Page 20 of 22

If you laughed at this without needing to Google it first, you're officially a geek and have our respect.

Page 21 of 22
Page 21 of 22

Now this is nifty! Head into a Google Docs spreadsheet, then click on an empty cell and press Shift + F12. Who knew slaying a dragon could be so easy.

Page 22 of 22
Page 22 of 22
TOPICS
YouTube
Brad Chacos
Read more
An egg in a freezer, which is a bad place to put eggs.
Game developers have suddenly become obsessed with eggs for some reason, and you can play two ovoid games for free right now
 
 
Bing Bong being held
Peak devs admit they've been speaking through Bing Bong, but not anymore: 'Anyone claiming that the devs are joining them through Bing Bong, or any other way, they are full of sh*t'
 
 
Final Fantasy Tactics intro cinematic
Holy baloney Batman: Final Fantasy Tactics genius/maniac proves that Chocobos canonically believe in god
 
 
Escape From Duckov - A duck with sunglasses and a pistol stands on a wood platform looking over a lot of shipping containers.
Duck-themed extraction shooter Escape From Duckov sold 500,000 Steam copies in its first 3 days
 
 
Eric Barone Photoshopped onto the head of Hornet, Silksong's protagonist
Stardew Valley's Eric Barone is in the Hollow Knight: Silksong credits for voicing a mystery character
 
 
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Gako locations - Snake in Gako mask
All Gako locations in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
 
 
Latest in Software
Compuserve ad of a kid looking into the computer screen
I just learned that before the internet, 'online' actually meant 'offline' and it's turned my world upside down
 
 
Man and humanoid robot working face to face at computers - stock illustration
No more hiding the impact of AI: The US government is looking to force companies to report how many folks have been fired because of artificial intelligence
 
 
The main cover image for the game 'The Council', showing a room full of well-dressed people with enigmatic visages, glowering at the viewer.
PewDiePie creates an AI council, appoints himself supreme leader, and wipes out members who underperform—only for his 'councillors' to collude against him
 
 
Portland, OR, USA - May 2, 2025: Assorted AI apps, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Meta AI, Microsoft Copilot, and Grok, are seen on the screen of an iPhone.
Great, now even malware is using LLMs to rewrite its code, says Google, as it documents new phase of 'AI abuse'
 
 
Bill Gates standing sheepishly at a presentation for Windows 98
Microsoft was apparently so embarrassed by Windows 98's infamous on-stage Blue Screen of Death it built a new testing room on campus to ensure it would never happen again
 
 
Amazon logo is screened on a mobile phone for illustration photo. Krakow, Poland on October 17th, 2024.
Amazon threatens legal action against Perplexity over claims of 'illegal conduct' and it's all because of an AI shopping agent
 
 
Latest in Features
GTA 6 trailer
Get ready to do the Silksong release date shuffle all over again: GTA 6's delay just blew up the whole game industry's holiday 2026 plans
 
 
A fantasy tavern
Even in early access, Tavern Keeper already feels like the fantasy pub sim of my dreams
 
 
Arc Raiders Dog Collar locations: A close-up of Scrappy, a rooster, wearing a cowbow hat against a dark purple background.
I'm not here to make friends: I will fill you with bullets if I see you in Arc Raiders
 
 
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era
PC Gamer magazine's new issue is on sale now: Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era
 
 
Firefighting Simulator Ignite
Firefighters don't actually use the 'fireman's carry' anymore, and other things I've learned from the Steam reviews for simulator games
 
 
New World character kneeling
New World proved that the hunger for a modern MMO is clearly there—but the only studios with enough cash to make them are too shareholder-brained to try
 
 
  1. Two of the best PC cases with the PC Gamer Recommended badge in the top right.
    1
    The best fish tank PC case in 2025: I've tested heaps of stylish chassis but only a few have earned my recommendation
  2. 2
    Best gaming laptop 2025: I've tested the best laptops for gaming of this generation and here are the ones I recommend
  3. 3
    Best Hall effect keyboards in 2025: the fastest, most customizable keyboards for competitive gaming
  4. 4
    Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC
  5. 5
    Best graphics cards in 2025: I've tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today's top cards
  1. Arc Raiders Server Slam open beta: Key art for the game showing a character wearing makeshift armour and helmet, walking forward with a gun by their side. There are two more characters in the background overlayed by an orange and blue hue on the left and right respectively.
    1
    Arc Raiders review
  2. 2
    Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded review
  3. 3
    The Séance of Blake Manor review
  4. 4
    Hyperbeat review
  5. 5
    Europa Universalis 5 review

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...