Technology and Scienceupdated 1h ago2 min read
Google Adds Zelda: Ocarina of Time Easter Egg That Recreates 1998 Search Results
“All it's really doing is reminding me of a time before Google made Search so much worse”
“It’s such a retro experience, and a fun reminder of what using Google was like back in the day.”
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Google search for 'Zelda' or 'Ocarina of Time' displays Master Sword and 1998 results. Clicking the Master Sword triggers a Triforce loading screen and retro-page transition.
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Search Reverts to 1998
Google added a Zelda Easter egg that temporarily transports users back to 1998 when they search for "Zelda" or "Ocarina of Time." Google shows an animated Master Sword in the lower right corner after the search loads, and clicking it triggers a Triforce loading screen and a recreated 1998 results page with blue links and the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. The effect is a curated list of links rather than a real search, and classic Google used to provide a list of 10 links on each page while the Easter egg includes seven.
The Master Sword appears in the bottom right corner on Google.com, and clicking it thrusts into a pedestal before revealing a pre-2000s search page. The effect works only for game-related queries, and searching for anything else returns the standard modern results page.
How the Interaction Plays
Google’s Easter egg uses a cross-device interaction in which the Master Sword appears on both mobile and desktop, then animates after a click or tap. After a little time-skipping animation and a Link shout, the search page is transformed into a simple list of blue links with retro Google branding. The page shows the classic blue links and the I’m Feeling Lucky button, and it also changes the top-left logo to "Google!" with an exclamation point.
The Triforce loading screen takes over the tab for a moment, and the Easter egg only seems to work for searches related to the game. A way to get a more traditional experience is clicking the Web tab on a Google Search results page, which shows actual webpages without AI Overview content.
Launch Timing and Stakes
Google tied the Zelda Easter egg to Nintendo’s remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which BigGo Finance said is due November 5 for the Nintendo Switch 2. Eiji Aonuma, the Zelda series producer at Nintendo, argued that some younger developers had never played the original and that this was an advantage for the remake’s development. The remake comes out this Thursday, November 5, and it is available now if users type “zelda” into the search bar and press enter.
Google will load the standard 2026 results page, but the animated Master Sword appears in the lower right corner, and the stunt is a time machine for the storied year when Google and Ars Technica came online. Google said last week that AI Mode is affecting how much revenue it earns from ads in traditional Search, and Google responded by adding more ads to AI Mode.