"Do a Barrel Roll" trick on Google

Yesterday, Google’s new “Barrel Roll Trick” made its rounds across the social networks. It’s part of the “web fun” stuff that Google enjoys doing. Type “Do a barrel roll” into Google and voila, your screen will do a barrel roll, which means it will basically do a flip turn like how the accelerometer on an iPhone would make your page turn if you turned your phone. The effect will even work if you type “Z or R twice”. The trick is homage to a 1997 Nintendo Game, Star Fox 64, where Peppy, the game’s space rabbit tells Fox McCloud, the game’s protagonist to “do a barrel roll”, which you make him do by pressing ‘z’ or ‘r’ twice. Watch the video below for Peppy’s “Do a barrel roll!’ in action.

The trick was created using HTML5, so it may not work in all browsers, though Firefox and Chrome will make it roll. Google’s statement on the trick is, ““Today’s fun query, ‘do a barrel roll,’ was created by a Google software engineer with the primary goal of entertaining users — while showcasing the power of CSS3, a presentation feature of modern browsers. The “do a barrel roll” query, which causes the search page to spin, will remain in place for a while.”

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