Google Search Easter Egg for Diwali Lights Up Your Browser Ahead of India’s Festival of Lights

Here's what you will see when you type ‘Diwali’ on Google Search.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by David Delima | Updated: 17 October 2022 18:43 IST

Google Search Easter Egg for Diwali Lights Up Your Browser Ahead of India’s Festival of Lights

Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Google Search

Once all the animated lamps on screen are lit, they arrange themselves as a constellation

Highlights

Google appears to have recently rolled out the hidden Search feature
A similar animated feature was introduced for Diwali 2020
Google also treats fans with such Easter eggs for other Search keywords

As India gets ready for one if its biggest festivals of the year — Diwali, Google has released an Easter egg, or a hidden feature, on its search engine to dive in to the spirit of the festival of lights. People who now type ‘Diwali' on the search will see an animated earthen lamp that is already lit, as part of the result. Clicking on the traditional ‘diya' would cause the screen to darken as multiple earthen lamps float onto the screen. Swiping the cursor over them would light them up as well. The cursor, in the form of a lit diya, also exudes a yellowish flame around it wherever it is made to move on the screen.

In a tweet via its Twitter account, the search engine giant hinted at this surprise feature was rolled out in India. An Easter egg is an undocumented addition to software that must be activated by the user to be visible or usable.

just here to say

:diya_lamp: :diya_lamp:
:diya_lamp: :diya_lamp:
search “Diwali”
:diya_lamp: for a :diya_lamp:
surprise
:diya_lamp: :diya_lamp:
:diya_lamp: :diya_lamp:
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) October 16, 2022

Screen-recordings of the floating earthen lamps on the Google search results page were posted by users on Twitter.

pic.twitter.com/be4lIt6P77
— Deepak Mahakale :ab::heavy_plus_sign: (@deepakmahakale) October 16, 2022

Once all the animated lamps on screen are lit, they arrange themselves to appear as a constellation made up of burning lamps before vanishing from the screen.

A nearly identical feature was rolled out by [Google(https://www.gadgets360.com/google)] in time for Diwali 2020.

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Remember how that first diya is always used to light up the rest?

See it come alive on search, today. Type "Diwali" on your Google search and click on the Diya icon :) pic.twitter.com/3eiFBJgBWa
— PG (@PGAditiya) November 13, 2020

Google often treats its users with quirky animations and hidden features that can be activated with specific keywords.

If one was to search for the characters of popular sitcom series Friends, for instance, each search result will show different floating animations.

For Chandler Bing's character played by actor Matthew Perry in the 1994 show, Google displays the iconic-to-the-show BarcaLounger. Clicking on the icon releases Chandler's pet chick and duck from the show to pace around the screen.

For Monica Geller's character, a soap-soaked sponge cleaner appears on screen and wipes all over it. In the show, Geller, played by actress Courtney Cox, was obsessed with cleanliness, which appears to have inspired the hidden feature on the search engine.

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Further reading: Google Search, Google, Diwali, Easter Eggs, Hidden Features

Radhika Parashar

Email Radhika

Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More