“dog” didn’t work the first time i searched. Showed me movies. So I believe google’s personalized search results is the culprit.
Searching for “dog animal” works as mentioned by another post.
Now “dog” works too.
I do find the layer over the page being set so the cat now paws at what you click on and you have to click the X to close it somewhat passing the point of being amusing to being annoying. But I guess that's the part that allows you to really keep the child distracted.
on edit: what does no one else have this experience, why the multiple downvotes? or do you have the overlay, and you think it is so wonderful one should be overjoyed and not annoyed?
The people getting fired are the ones who stopped engineers from doing this sort of thing. I remember in university you'd have job adds for google inside under the hood implementation details where only students/hackers would look. Those disappeared as quickly as pointy haired bosses showed up there.
I wonder if those type of ads attracts certain type of engineers, which were desirable during the rapid growth period of the company, only to become liabilities later on when they failed to adapt with the business's everchanging objectives and KPIs.
Disclaimer: Not an engineer, but a people manager.
No idea. Google in 2005 used to attract the smart weird people. By 2015 everyone smart and weird I knew there was yelling from the rooftops to not work for them.
It works for me if I search for Cat, but if I search for the Danish Kat it doesn't. wait, scratch that, it did work it just seemed to be a loading issue. (I was confused why it wouldn't work given that it had the initial animation showing the cat paw clicking to get you to do it)
Japanese users (including those with no cookies whose request headers say they only speak American English) get a knowledge panel for Caterpillar Inc. if they search for "cat." I can see the Cat (Animal) knowledge panel by searching for "cat animal" though. Thanks!
I don't think this comment could be better timed than today. I agree. That said, the reason these people worked on this is because they were probably mis-guided with priorities and red tapes in other areas...
My understanding is these are usually made by interns as a fun project that has a low impact and can be scuttled without consequence if the code becomes difficult to maintain. There are a bunch of these types of Easter eggs that no longer work.
i don't understand how they expect anyone to trust them and rely on these cat paws if they could be EOL at any moment in favor of some other easter egg
Looks like it is only enabled when the interface is English. I do not see it by default here in Germany. But I get the paw when I add &hl=en to the url:
I didn't see it and mine is in French, I do see it with "Chat" and "Katze". If I search "Cat" the spot is taken by the company, not the animal, could it be something similar for you? I feel like that's the actual issue.
The easter egg doesn't seem to work on mobile (or maybe from outside the US?), but as someone who hasn't used google.com for quite a while, what's remarkable to me is how much the landing SERP has changed since the simple list-of-links design of the early days. And not in a good way. I have some time, so rant incoming...
From top to bottom, here's what I see for "cat":
0. To start, that annoying full-screen cookie consent form. At least it has a "Reject all" button now, so it's relatively quick to dismiss.
1. A full-screen business summary for Caterpillar, including contact, revenue, and other less important information, followed by their site link. Useful, I guess.
2. Six thumbnail images of cats with a link to view all images. Very relevant, makes sense, but I would go to Image Search if I wanted to see images.
3. A map with some vaguely relevant locations and a link to view more map results. Why is this on the SERP? Again, if I wanted to search for locations, I'd go directly to Maps.
4. Some "other questions from users" section about the CAT brand. Huh? My search term wasn't a question, so why is this here? And why would I care about _other_ questions than the one I searched for? And, most importantly, why is this on the SERP?? Bafflingly bad design, context, presentation...
5. A couple of out of place, but presumably sponsored, links to a CAT phones site and a Spanish university site. Weird seeing this in a standalone section, but it's better than having sponsored links mixed in with native results.
6. An "other people also searched for" section with some CAT brand search links. Why would I care what other people searched for? Feels sponsored as well.
7. FINALLY a list of search results, with a grand total of 6 links, and some are even relevant.
8. I shit you not, ANOTHER "other questions from users" section, with even more random CAT brand questions. W. T. F.
9. A "related searches" section, that's pretty much the same as "other people also searched for". But...ytho?
10. Some ads to purchase CAT phones, with prices and thumbnails. Ah, no surprise, it's what Google does best.
11. An infinitely scrolling list of results, mixed with sponsored links. Broken up by the same ad section as above, and then more results, and more ads... Ad infinitum. Ah no, there's actually an end with a "show more" link. We can still page through the results, that's great.
What an absolutely hostile user experience. I mean, I get that I'm not the customer and that Google wants to bombard me with ads, but this is borderline unusable. I'm quite happy using SearX and occasionally DDG, but frankly it doesn't take much to improve on Google's UX.
80 comments
[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 153 ms ] threadThe cat one is good, though.
I deduce you've had your sound off this whole time.
It works!
They must have skipped the integration tests.
on edit: what does no one else have this experience, why the multiple downvotes? or do you have the overlay, and you think it is so wonderful one should be overjoyed and not annoyed?
Disclaimer: Not an engineer, but a people manager.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/too-...
FF Developer on a lousy Windows thinkpad.
https://elgoog.im/zergrush/
the LAST THING YOU ARE MEANT TO DO is rely on the catspaw. you just became the mark.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ingenuity
(click the animated helicopter)
https://www.google.com/search?q=cat&hl=en
Oh, and it also works when I use the German word for "Cat" which is "Katze":
https://www.google.com/search?q=katze
From top to bottom, here's what I see for "cat":
0. To start, that annoying full-screen cookie consent form. At least it has a "Reject all" button now, so it's relatively quick to dismiss.
1. A full-screen business summary for Caterpillar, including contact, revenue, and other less important information, followed by their site link. Useful, I guess.
2. Six thumbnail images of cats with a link to view all images. Very relevant, makes sense, but I would go to Image Search if I wanted to see images.
3. A map with some vaguely relevant locations and a link to view more map results. Why is this on the SERP? Again, if I wanted to search for locations, I'd go directly to Maps.
4. Some "other questions from users" section about the CAT brand. Huh? My search term wasn't a question, so why is this here? And why would I care about _other_ questions than the one I searched for? And, most importantly, why is this on the SERP?? Bafflingly bad design, context, presentation...
5. A couple of out of place, but presumably sponsored, links to a CAT phones site and a Spanish university site. Weird seeing this in a standalone section, but it's better than having sponsored links mixed in with native results.
6. An "other people also searched for" section with some CAT brand search links. Why would I care what other people searched for? Feels sponsored as well.
7. FINALLY a list of search results, with a grand total of 6 links, and some are even relevant.
8. I shit you not, ANOTHER "other questions from users" section, with even more random CAT brand questions. W. T. F.
9. A "related searches" section, that's pretty much the same as "other people also searched for". But...ytho?
10. Some ads to purchase CAT phones, with prices and thumbnails. Ah, no surprise, it's what Google does best.
11. An infinitely scrolling list of results, mixed with sponsored links. Broken up by the same ad section as above, and then more results, and more ads... Ad infinitum. Ah no, there's actually an end with a "show more" link. We can still page through the results, that's great.
What an absolutely hostile user experience. I mean, I get that I'm not the customer and that Google wants to bombard me with ads, but this is borderline unusable. I'm quite happy using SearX and occasionally DDG, but frankly it doesn't take much to improve on Google's UX.