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Google: Do a barrel roll

A new Google trick makes browsers spin, tilt, and go askew. Users rejoice!

 

Fernando Alfonso III

Streaming

Posted on Nov 3, 2011   Updated on Jun 3, 2021, 1:41 am CDT

The aerial maneuver known as a barrel roll, made famous by the video game series Star Fox, has just gotten a new meaning.

Today Google rolled out some clever coding that allows people to barrel roll their web browser when typing “do a barrel roll” into its search engine.

The cute trick has been a worldwide trending topic on Twitter for the last two hours, having collected more than 19,000 mentions, mostly from people spreading the news.

On Reddit more than 800 people gushed over the clever trick and helped make it the top front page thread.

“This is possibly one of the most important discoveries of our generation,” wrote chiablo.

“Google scared me, I wasn’t even finished typing it all out before it did the barrel roll,” wrote ding_dongled.

You can also search “tilt” or “askew” in Google and get some other browser-altering results.

The Daily Dot has reached out to Google about its shenanigans and is waiting to hear back.

Photo from siphil

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*First Published: Nov 3, 2011, 3:29 pm CDT