Google 'Do A Barrel Roll' Is One Of The Coolest Things Google Has Ever Done

With its interactive doodles and insanely large pumpkins, Google is known for being whimsical, but "do a barrel roll" might just take the cake.

Go ahead, do it. Google "do a barrel roll" and see what happens.

The phenomenon has taken Twitter by storm today, with feeds exploding with people talking about it. Celebrities, news organizations and even aviation enthusiast sites (wait, what?) are spreading the word.

The New York Times Bits Blog suggested in a tweet that "Google responds in something of a Siri-like fashion."

Indeed, iPhone 4S users have been enjoying asking Siri, the phone's new digital personal assistant, amusing questions and then posting her responses to Twitter, so perhaps Google wants to get in on the action.

This isn't the first time Google has allowed a search term to manipulate the layout of its results page. In April, iPhone users found that if they Googled "tilt" on their iPhones, using Safari or Google's app, the screen's display would tilt ever so slightly. And check out what happens to the company's logo if you Google "ascii art."

Well-played, Google. Well-played.

UPDATE: 4:45 p.m. EDT

As Kristopher Wright pointed out in a comment below, the "do a barrel roll" meme has been popular for sometime now. According to KnowYourMeme.com, it's a reference to the 1997 videogame Star Fox 64.

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• Jackie Robinson

  Google honored <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/31/jackie-robinson-google-doodle_n_2589665.html" target="_hplink">baseball legend and civil rights activist Jackie Robinson</a> on his 94th birthday on January 31st, 2013.

• George Ferris and Valentine's Day

  On February 14th, 2013, Google celebrated both <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/george-ferris_n_2685966.html" target="_hplink">Valentine's Day and George Ferris's 154th birthday</a> with this interactive doodle.

• Mary Leakey

  On February 6th, 2013, Google celebrated archeologist <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/06/mary-leakey_n_2630671.html" target="_hplink">Mary Leakey's 100th birthday</a>.

• International Women's Day

  Google celebrated International Women's Day 2013 with <a href="http://www.google.com/doodles/womens-day-2013" target="_hplink">this doodle by Betsy Bauer</a>.

• Nicolaus Copernicus

  Google celebrated astronomer <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/nicolaus-copernicus-google-doodle_n_2717419.html" target="_hplink">Copernicus's 540th birthday</a> on February 19th, 2013.

• SOPA/PIPA Protest

  On January 18, 2012, Google joined Wikipedia, Reddit and thousands of other sites for a c<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/18/sopa-pipa-google-logo-doodle_n_1212187.html" target="_hplink">ontent blackout in protest of proposed Congressional legislation</a> calling for strict enforcement of U.S. copyright law online. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) drew the ire of web users who feared these bills would lead to unchecked web censorship. As a result of the massive protest, key Congressmen who had previously supported the bills reversed their positions; SOPA and PIPA were tabled indefinitely.

• Happy Holidays 2011

  On Christmas Eve 2011, Google posted a holiday-themed doodle that serenaded visitors with "Jingle Bells".

• Mark Twain

  Google celebrated Mark Twain's 176th birthday on November 30, 2011, with a panoramic scene inspired by Twain's literary masterpiece <em>The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer</em>.

• Burning Man

  The <a href="http://www.google.com/logos/logos98-3.html" target="_hplink">first-ever Google doodle</a> was a simple stick figure behind the second "O" in the logo on Aug. 30, 1998. It represented the founders' recent trip to the Burning Man festival.

• Comic-Con

  One of the great and super nerdy Google doodles, this Jul 23, 2009 logo celebrates the annual Comic-Con conference.

• Sir Isaac Newton

  On March 1, 2010 Google honored the 366th birthday of Sir Isaac Newton with its first-ever animated Google Doodle.

• Happy Halloween

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/31/happy-halloween-google-doodle-pumpkins-video_n_1066989.html" target="_hplink">Google wished</a> users "Happy Halloween" Oct. 31 with a new video doodle that shows a team of crafty Googlers carving six enormous pumpkins to spell out the search engine's name.

• Marie Curie

  On November 7, 2011<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/marie-curie-google-doodle_n_1079560.html" target="_hplink"> Google celebrated</a> what would have been the 144th birthday of the mother of radioactivity, two-time Nobel Prize winning scientist Marie Curie.

• Les Paul

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/09/how-to-play-guitar-on-google_n_873895.html" target="_hplink">Google introduced</a> a super cool doodle on June 9, 2011, an interactive electric guitar to honor the 96th birthday of legendary musician and guitar innovator Les Paul. The Google guitar could play 10 notes from users' computer screen.

• Jim Henson

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/24/muppets-google-doodle-jim-henson_n_979011.html#s371509&title=Jim_Henson_Google" target="_hplink">On Sept. 24, 2011</a> Google's homepage featured a medley of Muppets, honoring the 75th anniversary of the birthday of late Muppets creator Jim Henson. On the interactive logo users could play "puppeteer" by clicking on the colored circles beneath each of the characters, which opened their mouths, and the Muppets followed the cursor with their eyes when you moved your mouse. One of the characters would throw his glasses into the air, and another actually ate a fellow Muppet.

• Freddie Mercury

  This Google Doodle went live for some on September 4, paying tribute to Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, who would have celebrated his 65th birthday on September 5.

• Gumby

  Google's Oct. 12, 2011 doodle illustration featured a brightly colored interactive tribute to artist Arthur "Art" Clokey, who would have turned 90 on October 12. In place of the company's logo, red, yellow, blue and green balls of clay bounced around and sprang to life at the click of a mouse, in an homage to Gumby, Clokey's best known animated character.

• Pacman

  In honor of Pacman's 30th anniversary on May 21, 2010, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/google-pacman-doodle-devo_n_588605.html" target="_hplink">Google gave its logo</a> over to the iconic arcade game with the first ever playable Google Doodle. The logo had 255 levels.

• Martha Graham

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/11/martha-graham-dance-google-logo_n_860402.html" target="_hplink">Google celebrated</a> the 117th birthday of dancer Martha Graham -- known throughout the 20th Century as a pioneer of contemporary dance -- with an amazing animated doodle on July 11, 2011.

• Roger Hargreaves

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/09/roger-hargreaves-google-logo-little-men-little-miss_n_859264.html#s276080&title=Little_Miss_Sunshine" target="_hplink">Google celebrated</a> what would have been the 76th birthday of Roger Hargreaves, creator of the "Little Men" and "Little Miss" series, on May 9, 2011. Google featured a colorful cycle of doodles depicting several of Hargreaves' animated characters, including Little Miss Sunshine, Mr. Tickle and Mr. Messy.

• Google's 13th Anniversary

  Google celebrated its 13th anniversary on September 27, 2011, with a simple, birthday-themed doodle and a scrapbook-style doodle featuring the company's logo letters dressed in a birthday hats and sitting around presents and a birthday cake. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/27/googles-13th-birthday-doodle-logo_n_982798.html" target="_hplink">Check out more photos here</a>.

• Mother's Day

  On Mother's Day May 8th, Google tipped its hat to moms everywhere with a spring-themed logo with a purple flower in place of the "L."

• Royal Wedding

  Google celebrated the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on April 29, 2011 with a Google doodle depicting a festively illustrated panorama of Westminster Abbey, where the royal knot was tied.

• Earth Day

  On April 22, Earth Day's 41st birthday, Google celebrated the occasion with a colorful animated doodle. Running your mouse over the illustration's playful animal characters brought the scene to life.

• Charlie Chaplin

  On April 16, 2011 <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/15/charlie-chaplin-google-doodle-_n_849587.html" target="_hplink">Google celebrated</a> what would have been the 122nd birthday of one of film's greatest stars, Charlie Chaplin, with a black and white video doodle.

• Yuri Gagarin

  On 12 April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter outer space. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/12/google-doodle-yuri-gagarin-first-man-in-space_n_847914.html" target="_hplink">Google's commemorative logo</a> was dedicated to Gagarin's flight into space.

• John Lennon

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/08/john-lennon-s-birthday_n_756064.html" target="_hplink">Google celebrated</a> what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday on On Oct. 9, 2010 with the first-ever Google Doodle video. The video played a hand-drawn animated version of Lennon's song "Imagine."

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Comments

[Clay Dreslough]

11:31 AM on 12/06/2011

This is the stupidest article ever. Google revolutionized search and created a new verb. They manage to do evil despite saying they don't. And yet they get praise for making a computer screen spin?!? Something that computers could do 30 years ago.

[Victor Stanescu]

04:12 PM on 11/17/2011

Over time there were a series of hoaxes, April fool’s pranks and practical jokes that Google played on their more gullible users!

More funny Google Jokes: http://www.vectorash.ro/google-hoaxes-practical-jokes/

[Tiggity Ben]

02:38 PM on 11/11/2011

The barrell roll is pretty sweet. i found myself do it about 50 times so far. There are a lot of other pretty cool stuff you can do on Google as well. I compiled a list of 10 that readers of this post might find entertaini­ng. http://tig­gity.blogs­pot.com/20­11/11/10-f­un-tricks-­to-do-on-g­oogle-and-­more.html

[Bob Chapman]

01:39 PM on 11/11/2011

The barrel roll meme is older than 1997 in the Seattle area. It goes back to the 1950s when Tex Johnson, a Boeing test pilot, did a real barrel roll with a prototype 707. This happened when the plane was showing off over Sea Fair on Lake Washington. Boeing management did not know in advance, and was not amused.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/airlinereporter/2009/11/15/video-boeing-707-barrel-roll-by-test-pilot-tex-johnson/

[Barf Bag]

01:12 AM on 11/08/2011

I have Firefox and it works fine. But I remember back in the 90's you could take the entire page apart in little squares, tilt and warp the page and several other things. This barrel roll is way more simplistic than those were.

[Barf Bag]

01:18 AM on 11/08/2011

Have to add that the double r or double z didn't work for me, tho.

[Post31]

01:36 PM on 11/04/2011

If this is the coolest thing i see all week, next week you all will be reading about me hanging myself.

[Tom S Cedar Mill]

11:52 AM on 11/04/2011

Funny: A few hits down the page leads to this link that shows their error:
http://paladin283.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/remiq-net_8233.jpg

[macrocosm]

11:52 AM on 11/04/2011

lol

[Justjack1]

10:00 AM on 11/04/2011

FREAKY!! AAAAHHHH!!

[Renan Fagalde]

09:29 AM on 11/04/2011

The update makes me think that the people who write the tech page lived under a rock for the last 15 years.

[StinkyMoBub]

11:17 PM on 11/03/2011

Fun, and useful too...

[Carbon Forteetoo]

10:30 PM on 11/03/2011

It didn't work. Maybe doesn't like Firefox.

[StinkyMoBub]

11:17 PM on 11/03/2011

Got Javascript turned off?

[Carbon Forteetoo]

11:42 PM on 11/03/2011

Of course not. Nothing would work. Also...I develop websites for a living.

[MochasMom]

11:50 AM on 11/04/2011

Didn't work for me either. On Firefox.

[MochasMom]

11:52 AM on 11/04/2011

Works on Safari, though.

[mappy3]

10:09 PM on 11/03/2011

So cool!!!

[KJLSanDiego]

09:39 PM on 11/03/2011

flippity do!

[Set to Jet]

07:35 PM on 11/03/2011

Also, and sorry if this has been posted a million times (I haven't checked), google "tilt."