Another selection of hidden internet tricks.
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| An artist's impression of an Easter egg (non-internet variety). |
This latest batch includes Easter eggs inspired by Doctor Who, Star Wars, the end of the world and even myself, Charles Fudgemuffin! So read on to discover the latest selection of Easter eggs found hidden around the internet...
Update: This article was published in 2014. Sadly, many of the featured links and Easter eggs are no longer active. For examples where that is the case, I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it that they were really amusing Easter eggs. And as a word of advice, perhaps you should have got here sooner!
1) Doctor Who's Tardis spotted on Google Maps
First up is an Easter egg found on Google Maps which Doctor Who fans will appreciate. If you go to Earls Court Road in London you'll notice a police telephone box which looks suspiciously like the Tardis. If you hover your mouse over this telephone box and then press the 'up' arrow on your keyboard, you'll be transported inside of the Tardis!
You can find the exact map co-ordinates of the police telephone box at the following link:
Doctor's Who's Tardis spotted on Google Maps
2) "Use the force, Luke!"
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| Luke Skywalker isn't the only one who can use the force. |
"Use the force, Luke!"
Update: Sadly, this Easter egg no longer works on YouTube. Trust me, though, it was pretty cool when it did!
3) Underwater Google
Thanks to a special agreement I negotiated, you can find a really cool 'Charles Fudgemuffin' themed Easter Egg on Google Hong Kong* and at the time of writing it's still active. It's a watery themed Easter Egg, and you can check it out if you go to the following link and then search for 'Charles Fudgemuffin' in the search box:
* Google.com were out of my budget!
As you can see it produces search results which are somewhat different from the usual Google search engine. Also, if you click the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button (it's in Chinese script but it's the usual right sided button under the search box), then you really will be lucky as a gold coin and other treasures will drop into the water.
N.B. Of course there was no special arrangement between Charles Fudgemuffin and Google Hong Kong (that was just a bluff) and in actual fact this Easter egg works with any search term. Try it with 'shark', 'fish' and 'octopus' for appropriately ocean themed photos.
Update: Sadly, this Easter egg from Google Hong Kong is no longer active, but it was fun while it lasted.
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| Turn up the volume. |
4) Volume to 11!
This next one is just a small gesture, but it's one that older readers, and fans of Spinal Tap in particular, may appreciate. On the Internet Movie Database website you can find reviews for every movie and as you would expect each movie also has a rating out of ten.
However, as a nice touch, the rating for 'This Is Spinal Tap' goes up to 11.
This Is Spinal Tap on IMDB
5) "You're not getting in without ID."
I love this next Easter egg for the pure silliness of it. If you want to check out Black Acre Brewing Company's website then of course you have to be old enough to drink, so showing a sense of responsibility, Black Acre Brewing Co have built a 'Are You Over 21?' question into their website before you are allowed to browse their content. However, if you click that you are under 21, an unexpectedly bizarre event occurs:
Update: Black Acre Brewing closed down in February 2023. Rather selfishly, they also closed down their website, so sadly this is another Easter egg which no longer works.
6) Money back offer if the world is destroyed...
An Easter Egg I featured in an earlier post was the 'Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?' website, which delivers the message, 'Nope.'*1 However, if you take a look at the source code*2 for that website it includes an interesting offer in the event that the website gets it wrong and the world actually is destroyed. Click the following link to go to the website, then press 'Control + U' to view the html source code and scroll down to the bottom of the code to see the message:
hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com
*1 As of the current time, but information is subject to change.
*2 To view the html source code for any webpage just press 'Control + U'. It's the same shortcut key whether you're using Firefox, Internet Explorer or Chrome.
7) Strike a pose!
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| A hat model strikes a pose. |
Go to Vogue UK and type the Konami code
N.B. You can try this several times and each time the 'hat model' will be wearing a different hat.
8) You've been Rickrolled
For those who don't know, Rickrolling in the act of posting a link on a forum or website pretending to be a serious link to a relevant subject, but instead the link actually redirects the user to Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up video on YouTube. It's a stupid prank, but it's a very popular one, and over the years variations on the 'Rickrolling theme' have developed. For example, Digg.com have got in on the action with a Rickrolling themed Easter egg hidden in their website. To unlock the Easter egg all you have to do once again is type the Konami code ('up up down down left right left right b a'):
Go to Digg.com and type the Konami code
Update: You can probably guess what I'm going to say... Yes, sadly, this is another Easter egg which no longer works. To anyone reading this in 2023 or later, I recommend getting here on time in future, then all the Easter eggs will work!
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| A regular egg. Not as nice as an Easter egg, but still quite nice. |
9) Hidden Easter eggs galore on this next website
This next website has really gotten into the spirit of things and included quite a lot of hidden Easter Eggs, so check out the site and see if you can find the Easter Eggs for yourself...
See if you can find the hidden Easter Eggs on this website
10) Play-Doh special effects
Finally, Google have embedded a really cool Easter Egg into all blogs which use their 'blogger' service. If you post the comment 'Play-Doh was originally invented as a wallpaper cleaner' as a reply to any blog post then you get a colourful special effects show involving a Play-Doh animation. It only works on blogs hosted by Google, i.e. any blog which has the word 'blogspot' in its address, such as this blog, charlesfudgemuffin.blogspot.com.
Try it out on this blog by typing the comment 'Play-Doh was originally invented as a wallpaper cleaner' below:
If you've made it this far down the page then you've probably realised that the 'Comments Box' above was actually a fake photo! Ha, ha! Fooled you! Or maybe I didn't. Maybe you wre really smart and figured out straight away that it wasn't a real comment box.
Anyway, either way, it wasn't real. If you want to leave a comment, then scroll down even further to use the real comment box underneath this article.
Usually at the end of each blog post I like to link to related posts on a similar theme. However, given that many of the online Easter eggs I originally highlighted are no longer active, it seems wise on this occasion to link instead to non-related blog posts:
Things that unintentionally made me laugh (part 4)
The idiot Awards (part 5)
play-doh was originally invented as wallpaper cleaner
ReplyDeleteThanks for trying it out, but as you've probably realised by now, number 10 on the list was just a bluff.
DeleteThe comment box included below number 10 is actually fake, and if you try to click on it, it links to a page which explains more...