Surprise and Delight
Over the weekend Dave Fleet posted up a graphic on Facebook that wowed me.
Here, I re-created it for you:
How many people do you think ever thought to look up “walking directions” on Google Maps from “the shire to mordor”? Maybe – maybe – a few thousand fellow geeks? But some wiseguy at Google gave no mind to the fact that an infinitesimal proportion of Google users might try this, and planted this Easter egg just to be silly. And it is awesome.
Like many, I appreciate the whimsical Google Logo Doodles, but those are seen by everyone. Those delight us, but rarely surprise us. As a consumer it is the little things, like “one does not simply walk into Mordor,” that makes me appreciate Google more than ever.
It makes me wonder what else they have in store.
Isn’t that what any brand wants from its customers? Not just delight, but curiosity about “what’s next?”
Posted on: May 30, 2012 at 8:52 am By Todd Defren
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Todd,
I love ‘easter eggs’ in any software or application because – you’re right – they surprise and delight us. I’ve spent hours as a kid trying to get an easter egg to work for me… or to find one I’d heard about. It’s a wonderful way to invite your customers to find something special, something others don’t, won’t or might not ever see.
Remember when Yelp ‘leaked’ the release of monocle?
- Drew
I love these! On of my favorites is for all of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans. Type “the answer to life the universe and everything” into Google and see what the top result is. Here is an older list of a bunch of other random tricks you can make Google do: http://www.instructables.com/id/Cool-Google-tricks-and-hacks/?ALLSTEPS