Google has hidden a time machine in its search results, and the key is a sword.
As Kotaku and GamesRadar+ both report, searching Google for the right Zelda terms now brings up a glowing Master Sword. Click it, and the search page jumps back to 1998, the year GamesRadar+ notes the original Ocarina of Time came out. Google hasn't published anything about the trick that we could find, and we couldn't check the easter egg directly, so the details below are as Kotaku and GamesRadar+ report them.
How to find it
Kotaku says typing "zelda" into the Google search bar makes a glowing, hovering Master Sword appear in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, and that "Ocarina of Time" works too. GamesRadar+ gives the trigger as "The Legend of Zelda" or "Ocarina of Time". Either way, the sword is the button: GamesRadar+ describes it being inserted when clicked, before the page is transported back to 1998.
What 1998 Google looks like
According to Kotaku, the throwback page brings back Google's old logo with the exclamation mark, along with old-style blue links in a Times New Roman-ish font. Kotaku also notes what's missing: no AI search results, no shopping links and no ads. GamesRadar+ points to the old Google font, the bright primary colours and the exclamation mark, along with the 90s search interface.
The joke lands because of the timing. Kotaku frames the easter egg as Google tapping into the nostalgia reawakened by the Ocarina of Time remake, and GamesRadar+ says the trick is in honour of that remake, which it says is set to release on November 5. Nintendo's own announcement describes the game as completely reborn for Nintendo Switch 2 and launching on 5 November, and pitches it as a young Link's adventure across time. A search page that hops back 28 years feels oddly on theme.
Google's long tradition of search tricks
This isn't Google's first playful search result. GamesRadar+ points to older ones: typing "Minecraft" lets you play a bit of Mojang's game, and "do a barrel roll" flips the screen around.
What neither outlet says is how long the Zelda version will stick around: Kotaku and GamesRadar+ give no end date, so there's no telling whether the Master Sword outlasts launch week.
Reaction to the throwback has leaned wistful. GamesRadar+ quotes replies on X asking, "Can we just… keep it like that now? Forever." and "Can we get that Google back?" Kotaku, for its part, calls it funny that Google is reminding people of its old self right now, and in its own commentary points out that Google lost $475 billion in stock market value last week, the company's worst-performing day on the stock market ever, with analysts noting it had missed its ad revenue targets.
Riley's take: The best easter eggs work on two levels, and this one does. On the surface it reads like a cute promo for a big Nintendo launch. Underneath, it's a reminder that a search page used to be a list of links and nothing else, and at least some people clearly miss that. Turning that feeling into a hidden Master Sword is a very Zelda way to make the point: the past is right there, you just have to know where to swing.
Reporting notes
