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Having fun with Easter eggs from Google and Amazon

By J. Carlton Collins, CPA

Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2019. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function.

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Q. Have you come across any good Easter eggs lately?

A. Microsoft seems to have reduced the number of Easter eggs hidden in its software in recent years, but other software publishers still allow their programmers the perk of adding a little levity to their creations. A couple of examples of more recent Easter eggs are as follows:

Google search tool. If you hover over the I’m Feeling Lucky button in Google, it now spins like a roulette wheel and lands on one of many additional options, such as I’m Feeling Wonderful, I’m Feeling Adventurous, or I’m Feeling Curious. Selecting these options will reveal a wide variety of results — some educational, some amusing, and some just bizarre. For example, I selected the I’m Feeling Adventurous option twice, which produced different results. The first result was a cartoonish picture of balls (pictured below) that transform into the animated characters Gumby and Pokey when clicked.

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The second result produced a miniature PAC-MAN Doodle game (pictured below), modeled after the 1980s-style ­PAC-MAN games.

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Amazon. Of course, Amazon’s Easter eggs are more difficult to search for because, when you search the web for the terms “Amazon” and “Easter eggs,” you find a bunch of plastic Easter eggs for sale. Nonetheless, there is a tiny little egg hidden in every Amazon page that you can access as follows: On any Amazon page, press Ctrl+U to view the source code, and then scroll to the bottom to see a duck meowing, as pictured below.

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About the author

J. Carlton Collins, CPA, (carlton@asaresearch.com) is a technology consultant, a conference presenter, and a JofA contributing editor.

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After nine years writing “Technology Q&A,” J. Carlton Collins, CPA, will be handing the reins to a new writing team beginning with the January 2020 issue. He will still write features for the JofA, so you’ll see his byline in the future, just not as often. Technology Q&A will continue to be published each month. If you have any suggestions or questions for Technology Q&A, please send your comments to jofatech@aicpa.org.