Google Zelda Easter egg: find the Master Sword, see old Search

You trigger it from a normal Google search, on a phone or a computer. Here are the steps:

1. Open Google in any browser, or in the Google app on your phone.
2. Search for Zelda, The Legend of Zelda or Ocarina of Time. Any of the three works.
3. Look at the bottom-right corner of the results. A small Master Sword, Link’s famous blade, should be waiting there.
4. Click or tap the sword.
5. Watch the short animation, then scroll through your results in their new old-fashioned look.

The animation is the fun part. The sword drops back into its stone pedestal with a sound effect, the screen flashes with the blue and white glow from the scene in the game where Link pulls the blade, and a golden Triforce fills the middle of the tab for a moment. When it fades, you’re still on the same results, they just look like they came out of a late-90s dial-up session.

Ocarina of Time is a game about time travel. Link pulls the Master Sword and jumps seven years into the future, then puts it back to return to his childhood. Google’s version runs the other way: placing the sword sends Search into the past.

The year isn’t random either. The original game came out on the Nintendo 64 in November 1998, and Google itself was founded that same year. So the Easter egg is a birthday nod to both at once.

Some fans have spotted a second joke. The retro page shows results the way a search engine used to: a ranked list of links with a line or two of text each, and nothing else. Plenty of people have said it reminded them how much busier Google’s pages are now, with ads, AI Overviews and AI Mode stacked above the links.

Yes, on all the common setups that people have tried. It shows up in mobile browsers and on desktop, so an iPhone, an Android phone, a Mac or a Windows PC should all get the sword. It has been seen by players in Canada and Australia as well as the US, so it isn’t limited to American accounts. Google hasn’t published an official list of countries, though, so if it’s missing where you live, treat it as possible rather than promised.

Two limits catch people out:

• It only lasts for that one page. Search for anything else and you’re back to the modern design. There’s no setting to keep the 1998 look.
• It only triggers on Zelda searches. Typing a different game or topic won’t show the sword.

If you search and see no sword, it’s usually something on your side rather than the trick being gone. Google hasn’t posted its own troubleshooting page for this, so these are the common culprits for any Google Search Easter egg:

1. Scroll to the very bottom right. On phones, the icon can sit just above the browser’s toolbar and be easy to miss.
2. Check you’re on the All tab. The sword appears on the main results view. Other tabs, such as Images or News, may not show it.
3. Try a private or incognito window. This rules out a stale page or a browser extension. Ad blockers and script blockers sometimes hide these playful extras.
4. Use a mainstream browser. Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox are the safest bets. Some privacy browsers strip the scripts that run animations.
5. Search Google directly. If your browser sends searches to a different engine, or to Google through a third-party app, the trick won’t load. Go to Google’s own page and type the search there.
6. Try another phrase. If Zelda alone doesn’t work, try Ocarina of Time, or The Legend of Zelda.

One useful tip came out of all this. If you like the clean list of links and don’t want AI summaries on every search, Google already has a Web tab on its results page that shows only links. You can find it next to All and Images, sometimes under More.

The sword isn’t Google’s first gaming tribute. It added Easter eggs for the live-action Zelda movie last year, and a list of others still works today. Try these searches:

• do a barrel roll: the whole results page spins once, a nod to Star Fox, another Nintendo series.
• super mario: a flashing question block appears that pops out coins when you click it, and a familiar extra-life jingle if you keep going.
• sonic: the classic pixel Sonic waits by the results and spins when you tap him. Keep tapping and he turns into Super Sonic.
• minecraft: a grass block button lets you mine away chunks of the page with Steve’s hand, until a creeper blows it all back.
• pac-man: brings back Google’s playable Pac-Man doodle, with a second player if you insert another coin.
• snake, solitaire or tic tac toe: full mini-games right in the results, on phone or desktop.
• pokémon on a phone: a small Poké Ball appears, and you can catch the original creatures by searching their names.

Then there’s the one most people already know: when Chrome can’t reach the internet, tap the little dinosaur on the error page to start running.

The Easter egg is a countdown clock in disguise. The Ocarina of Time remake arrives November 5 as a Switch 2 exclusive, with rebuilt graphics, more dialogue, reworked swimming, a proper jump button and voice acting in some cutscenes. In Canada, the physical edition is listed at $99.99 with a foil-textured box. Nintendo has also put out a Zelda-themed Switch 2 console and matching accessories for the series’ 40th anniversary.

If you don’t have a Switch 2, you can still play the original. It’s included with a Nintendo Switch Online plus Expansion Pack membership.

Google hasn’t said how long the sword will stay, and themed tricks like this tend to be timed to a launch, so if you want to see Search in its 1998 outfit, try it before release week ends.