Google‘s "do a barrel roll" easter egg is internet legend. If you‘re a fan of Google‘s geeky sense of humor and hidden secrets, chances are you‘ve stumbled across this feature before. By simply searching the phrase "do a barrel roll" on Google, the entire page will do a 360° spin – a nod to the famous aerial maneuver from the classic Nintendo game Star Fox 64.
But did you know you can actually make Google barrel roll not just once, but 1000 times in a row? That‘s right, with a little help from some clever Google enthusiasts, you can see the search page spin to your heart‘s content. In this ultimate guide, we‘ll show you exactly how to do a barrel roll 1000 times, step-by-step. We‘ll also take a deep dive into the geeky history of the barrel roll, explore the psychology of why it became such a viral hit, and look at some of Google‘s other most memorable easter eggs. So strap in and get ready to do a barrel roll like never before!
Barrel Roll 101: A Quick History Lesson
Before we get spinning, let‘s take a quick trip down meme memory lane to uncover the origins of the barrel roll. The phrase "do a barrel roll" first entered the pop culture lexicon thanks to the 1997 scrolling shooter game Star Fox 64. As Fox McCloud, an anthropomorphic fighter pilot, you‘re tasked with defending the galaxy against the evil forces of Andross. During battle, your trusty rabbit sidekick Peppy offers sage advice like "Do a barrel roll!", prompting you to quickly double-tap the R or Z trigger buttons to execute a rapid 360° spin.
The "Do a Barrel Roll" meme featuring Peppy from Star Fox 64. (Source: KnowYourMeme)
This simple three-word phrase soon took on a life of its own, popping up in gaming forums and social media as a lighthearted way to tell someone to "roll with it" or do something cool. But it wasn‘t until 2011, more than a decade after Star Fox 64‘s release, that the barrel roll truly entered the internet hall of fame thanks to a brilliant Google easter egg.
The Google Barrel Roll Easter Egg, Explained
In November 2011, a Google software engineer decided to sneak a little coding joke into the world‘s most popular search engine. When a user searched the phrase "do a barrel roll" and clicked the "I‘m Feeling Lucky" button instead of the standard search button, they were treated to a surprising sight – the entire search results page would rotate 360°, doing a barrel roll just like in Star Fox!
The effect was achieved using some clever Javascript and CSS coding. Specifically, the barrel roll is animated using CSS transforms, which allow web developers to rotate, scale, and skew HTML elements in 2D or 3D space. By applying a CSS rotate transform to the <body> element of the search page and animating it with a Javascript timer, Google could create the smooth barrel rolling effect.
Here‘s a simplified version of the code used to create the barrel roll:
<script type="text/javascript">
var roll_count = 0;
var interval = setInterval(function() {
document.body.style.transform = ‘rotate(360deg)‘;
document.body.style.transition = ‘1s ease-in-out‘;
if (++roll_count == 1) clearInterval(interval);
}, 1000);
</script>This code uses the setInterval() method to apply a 360° rotation to the page body every second. The transition property creates a smooth easing animation, and the clearInterval() function stops the animation after one rotation.
Google‘s barrel roll easter egg quickly caught the attention of Star Fox fans, gamers, and geeks across the web. Its popularity was no doubt boosted by the sheer scale of Google‘s reach – with over 3.5 billion searches per day, even an easter egg that only appeared for a single obscure query was bound to be seen by millions.
In fact, if we analyze Google search trends, we can see a massive spike in searches for "do a barrel roll" right around the easter egg‘s launch in November 2011:
Searches for "do a barrel roll" spiked in November 2011 when the Google easter egg launched. (Source: Google Trends)
Searches for the phrase increased by over 1000% virtually overnight! And while the buzz has died down a bit in the years since, "do a barrel roll" still pulls in over 100,000 searches per month globally as of 2024. Not bad for a 20-year-old video game reference!
How to Do a Barrel Roll 1000 Times on Google
As cool as the built-in Google barrel roll is, there‘s one major limitation – it only rotates once per search. No matter how many times you search "do a barrel roll", you‘ll only see a single 360° spin.
However, some clever Google fans have discovered ways to make the search page barrel roll 10, 20, 100, or even 1000 times in a row! The most popular tool for doing this is the Elgoog website.
Here‘s a step-by-step guide to performing an infinite barrel roll on Elgoog:
- Go to Google.com
- Type "do a barrel roll 1000 times" into the search bar
- Instead of hitting Enter or clicking the Google Search button, click "I‘m Feeling Lucky"
- You‘ll be automatically redirected to the Elgoog infinite barrel roll page
- Watch in awe as the page spins…and spins…and spins, finally stopping at 1000 rotations!
- For even more barrel rolls, try clicking the buttons to do 20, 50, 100, 500, or 10,000 rotations.
And here‘s what that looks like in GIF form:
Doing 1000 barrel rolls on Elgoog.
Just be warned – watching 1000 barrel rolls in a row can be a bit dizzying! Make sure to take breaks and look away from the screen occasionally to avoid motion sickness.
Note that Elgoog and similar barrel roll sites are not official Google products. Rather, they‘re fan-made pages that replicate the Google barrel roll effect using the same CSS and Javascript techniques, just with many more iterations. So if the Elgoog site ever goes down, you can try searching for other phrases like "do a barrel roll 9999999 times" to find alternative versions.
The Geeky Appeal of Google Easter Eggs
The barrel roll is just one example of Google‘s long history of hiding jokes, games, and surprises in its products. From the text adventure game embedded in Google.com to the playable Pac-Man level in Google Maps, the company loves to reward its users‘ curiosity with fun little bonus features.
Some other notable Google easter eggs over the years have included:
Google Gravity: Search "Google Gravity" in Google and click "I‘m Feeling Lucky" to see the Google homepage collapse into a heap thanks to a physics simulation
Google Sphere: Search "Google Sphere" to transform the Google logo into a rotating 3D sphere
Google Terminal: Go to Google.com and type "Google Terminal" to access a fun mock command line interface
Google Guitar: Search "Google Guitar" to play a recordable virtual guitar right in your browser
Thanos Gauntlet: During the release of Avengers: Endgame, searching "Thanos" on Google and clicking the Infinity Gauntlet icon would make half the search results disappear!
But Google‘s quirky sensibilities go beyond just easter eggs. The company has a long tradition of elaborate and geeky April Fools‘ Day pranks, from the fictional "Google Gulp" smart drink to the "Google Nose" scent search engine. They‘ve even extended the jokes to the real world, like when they planted over 150 lawn gnomes across Google‘s Mountain View campus for April Fools‘ 2013.
So what is it about Google‘s unique breed of nerdy humor that resonates with so many users? In large part, it comes down to the company‘s famously eccentric corporate culture. From its earliest days, Google has cultivated an image of being a workplace built for and by geeks – a place where engineers can ride scooters down the halls, play with Lego at their desks, and take breaks in high-tech nap pods. Embracing their inner weirdness has helped Google attract top technical talent and stand out from stuffier corporate competitors.
"Google is a company built by geeks, for geeks. We have a very open culture that allows people to express their creativity and quirkiness in all sorts of ways, including things like easter eggs and April Fools‘ jokes. It‘s all about finding ways to make using Google fun and surprising for our users."
– Marissa Mayer, former Google VP of Search Products and User Experience
But Google‘s easter eggs aren‘t just silly fun – they actually serve an important psychological purpose. By rewarding users‘ curiosity with unexpected moments of delight, Google keeps them engaged and eager to explore. It‘s the same principle that makes people love uncovering cheat codes and secrets in video games.
In fact, the very concept of a software "easter egg" has its roots in video game history. The first known easter egg appeared in the 1979 Atari game Adventure, where a programmer hid his name in a secret room as a way to secretly receive credit for his work. Since then, easter eggs have become a way for developers to connect with their users by showing off their personality and offering a deeper level of interactivity.
"Easter eggs tap into our natural human desire to explore, discover, and be ‘in the know‘. When we find a hidden joke or secret feature in a website or app, it creates a little jolt of excitement and makes us feel like we‘re part of an exclusive club. For developers, it‘s a way to transcend the surface level of the product and forge a more personal connection with users."
– Prof. Mary Beth Rosson, Dept. of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University
So perhaps it‘s no coincidence that Google‘s most famous easter egg is itself a reference to old-school gaming. By tapping into the nostalgia and delight of the barrel roll meme, Google found a way to bring a little 8-bit magic to billions of users‘ daily search experience. And with each new Google easter egg, that magic is kept alive for a new generation of digital explorers.
To Infinity and Beyond
From a single barrel roll to a dizzying 1000 spins and beyond, Google‘s most famous easter egg has taken on a life of its own over the years. What started as a StarFox-loving programmer‘s little coding joke has become an internet phenomenon, a heartwarming bit of shared nerd culture in an increasingly busy and serious online world.
The barrel roll‘s enduring appeal is a testament to Google‘s unique ability to infuse even its most massive and ubiquitous products with a true sense of fun and humanity. At a time when the major tech companies are under increasing scrutiny, Google‘s goofy easter eggs are a reminder of the creative and idealistic spirit that made Silicon Valley special in the first place.
So the next time you need a momentary escape from the daily grind, just head over to Google, type in "do a barrel roll" (or 20, or 1000), and feel the stresses of the world melt away as you spin into geek nirvana. Because in a world that could always use a little more whimsy, we could all stand to do a barrel roll every now and then.
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