There are plenty of virtual Easter Eggs – hidden features - to enjoy on the web and your PC. Here we reveal where to find 15 secret treats.
Google search languages
You're probably already aware that you can use dozens of languages to search Google. Surprisingly, though, these also include Elmer Fudd, Klingon, Pig Latin, Swedish Chef and Hacker.
The Meaning of Life
Go to Google and type in the following phrase in lower case, and without the quotation marks: 'the answer to life the universe and everything'. Douglas Adams would be proud.
French military victories
Type 'French military victories' (without the quotation marks) into Google and click the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button to see what the cheeky search engine returns.
Hear the Yahoo yodel
Go to Yahoo's US home page and click on the exclamation mark in the main Yahoo logo to hear the 'Yahoo yodel'.
Amazon's secret send-off
On the Amazon.com homepage scroll to the bottom until you reach a set of links and click on 'Directory of All Stores'. On the following page, scroll all the way to the bottom again until you see the copyright notice. Roughly one centimetre below the year '1996' in the copyright notice there's a small invisible link. Click it to see a secret web page created in honour one of Amazon's old employees, David Risher.
Firefox revelation
In Firefox or any Mozilla-based browser type 'about:mozilla' (without the quotation marks) into the address field and you'll be presented with the following piece of text:
“And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror - from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15.”
The '7:15' refers to September 15th 2003, when AOL shut down its Netscape browser division and the Mozilla Foundation was launched. The 'great bird' rising from the ashes refers to the Mozilla project and the development of the Firefox browser, which was initially named Firebird. 'Mammon' presumably refers to Microsoft and Internet Explorer.
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15 web & PC secrets
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Claire Woffenden, Editor
