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Google 'Zerg Rush' Easter Egg Invades Your Search Results

 & Chloe Albanesius Executive Editor, News

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It's Friday, so why not waste a few minutes this morning with Google's latest playable Easter Egg?

Typing "zerg rush" in Google.com seemingly returns the regular Google search results for this unusual term, but soon, little O's (from the Google logo) start dropping from the top of the page.

Use your mouse to click and destroy the O's - or zerglings - before they eat your search results and gather into two, large G's on the page. At the end of the game, you can share your scores via Google+, telling followers how many zerglings you took down.

As described by knowyourmeme.com, the term Zerg Rush originates from the real-time strategy (RTS) game Starcraft. "The 'Zerg' race is notoriously known for its ability to mass-produce offensive units within a short time frame, thus allowing the player to overpower the opponent by sheer number," the website said.

Zerg Rush Score

News of the game quickly made the rounds this morning, with "Zerg Rush" topping the trending topics on Google+ and Twitter as users urged friends to try it out.

"Just Googled 'Zerg Rush' and spent the next 40 minutes clicking on O's...I think I need to get a life...still; it was good fun!" one user tweeted this morning.

"Type "Zerg Rush" into Google. If you've ever spent any time with an #RTS, you'll enjoy the results. #GG," another person wrote.

Google has offered up a number of Easter Eggs over the years. On Valentine's Day this year, typing in a specific equation resulted in a blue heart on a graph.

Over the holidays, meanwhile, Google released the "Let It Snow" and added lights to its results pages for "Christmas" and "Hanukkah" searches. There's also the "do a barrel roll" meme, as well as "Tilt." A 2010 playable Pac-Man homepage doodle, meanwhile, was so popular that it resulted in a standalone page and zapped about 4.8 million hours of productivity.

As PCMag reported in 2010, there's a hidden world of harmless pranks coded just beneath the surface of many popular websites like YouTube, Facebook, and Google; undocumented tricks to entertain and amuse. Click on the slideshow below for eleven Easter Eggs and share more in the comments below.


About Our Expert

Chloe Albanesius

Chloe Albanesius

Executive Editor, News

My Experience

I started out covering tech policy in DC for The National Journal, where my beat included state-level tech news and all the congressional hearings and FCC meetings I could handle. I later covered Wall Street trading tech before switching gears to consumer tech. I now lead PCMag's news coverage.

My Areas of Expertise

Getting my start in DC means I still have a soft spot for tech policy; Congressional hearings can sometimes be as entertaining as a Bravo reality show, for better or worse. But PCMag is all about the technology we use every day, as well as keeping an eye out for the trends that will shape the industry in the years ahead (or flop on arrival). I've covered the rise of social media, the iOS vs. Android wars, the cord-cutting revolution that's now left us with hefty streaming bills, and the effort to stuff artificial intelligence into every product you could imagine. This job has taken me to CES in Vegas (one too many times), IFA in Berlin, and MWC in Barcelona. I also drove a Tesla 1,000 miles out west as part of our Best Mobile Networks project. Of late, my focus is on our hard-working team of reporters at PCMag, guiding and editing their robust coverage.

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