5 ms·

How Google did their barrel roll trick

58 points by briansage 15y ago

philbarr 15y ago
I had to type "do a barrel roll" without quotes in google. e.g. http://www.google.co.uk/#q=do+a+barrel+roll http://www.google.co.uk/#q=do+a+barrel+roll
petenixey 15y ago
Plenty of acumen to explaining the trick by demonstrating it on your own site search pages. Nicely piggybacked :)
diamondd32 15y ago
As expected, Sage is on point again with this one. Great job buddy! :)
bsimm 15y ago
Use the boost to get through!
sammyo 15y ago
I only had to type "do a ba" in chrome before completion triggered the transform.
magicseth 15y ago
To me the more interesting part is how Google has managed to maintain a sense of fun and a corporate attitude that allows fun hacks to make it to the world. I'd love to know what the process was from engineer ideation (I Presume). Past product, and qa. Who said "go" and was it a hard process or one that google is optimized for.
- bh42222 15y ago
  To me the more interesting part is how Google has managed to maintain a sense of fun and a corporate attitude that allows fun hacks to make it to the world. Too bad that (to me at least) Google is now firmly on the side of extremely non-fun companies. Mostly I'm referring to their no nick names on G+ stubborn dickishnes.
- bonch 15y ago
  On the other side of the coin, I see it as a cynical marketing move specifically designed to appeal to nostalgia create the very impression you had, that they "maintain a sense of fun and a corporate attitude that allows fun hacks to make it to the world." Google is often successful at appealing to geek humor and ideals in order to gain fans, even as they do things that violate those ideals.
  - masterzora 15y ago
    What, the barrel roll thing? I've gotta say, you're looking at it incorrectly. It was implemented by a single engineer who thought it would be a humorous thing to do without considering marketing at all. Or did you mean that them allowing this is the cynical marketing move? It'd make more sense, but I don't think I'd agree with it.
briansage 15y ago
Your father helped me like that, too!
briansage 15y ago
Thanks for the comments :) Your father helped me like that, too!
RaizedByWolves 15y ago
It's actually wrong. Google used CSS keyframes http://pastie.org/2810243 http://pastie.org/2810243
bcrescimanno 15y ago
Out of curiosity: why is the fact that this effect was achieved with a few simple lines of CSS3 (whether it was keyframe animations or simply a rotate transition doesn't really matter) front page news? Maybe I'm just jaded because I'm a UI engineer--but the "trick" wasn't particularly impressive (though it was quite amusing--and would have been even more so if they'd used HTML5 audio to get Slippy Toad in there).
- Groxx 15y ago
  Front-page with only 40 points after 2 hours. It doesn't seem like it'll stay there for very long, the HN algorithm just gives a lot of weight to early + fast risers. And yeah, a Slippy sound-bite would have made it another level of awesome :D
- tomcreighton 15y ago
  I'm surprised by this too, but as I recall the same thing happened when a bunch of sites were discovered to have the Konami code. Leveraging nerd nostalgia = big return.
bonch 15y ago
As a kid who grew up playing the original Star Fox, I LOVE THIS But it's not from the original Star Fox.
rplnt 15y ago
And this one is not blocked in Opera.

58 points by briansage 15y ago

I had to type "do a barrel roll" without quotes in google. e.g. http://www.google.co.uk/#q=do+a+barrel+roll http://www.google.co.uk/#q=do+a+barrel+roll

petenixey 15y ago

Plenty of acumen to explaining the trick by demonstrating it on your own site search pages. Nicely piggybacked :)

diamondd32 15y ago

As expected, Sage is on point again with this one. Great job buddy! :)

bsimm 15y ago

Use the boost to get through!

sammyo 15y ago

I only had to type "do a ba" in chrome before completion triggered the transform.

magicseth 15y ago

To me the more interesting part is how Google has managed to maintain a sense of fun and a corporate attitude that allows fun hacks to make it to the world. I'd love to know what the process was from engineer ideation (I Presume). Past product, and qa. Who said "go" and was it a hard process or one that google is optimized for.

bh42222 15y ago
To me the more interesting part is how Google has managed to maintain a sense of fun and a corporate attitude that allows fun hacks to make it to the world. Too bad that (to me at least) Google is now firmly on the side of extremely non-fun companies. Mostly I'm referring to their no nick names on G+ stubborn dickishnes.
bonch 15y ago
On the other side of the coin, I see it as a cynical marketing move specifically designed to appeal to nostalgia create the very impression you had, that they "maintain a sense of fun and a corporate attitude that allows fun hacks to make it to the world." Google is often successful at appealing to geek humor and ideals in order to gain fans, even as they do things that violate those ideals.
- masterzora 15y ago
  What, the barrel roll thing? I've gotta say, you're looking at it incorrectly. It was implemented by a single engineer who thought it would be a humorous thing to do without considering marketing at all. Or did you mean that them allowing this is the cynical marketing move? It'd make more sense, but I don't think I'd agree with it.

briansage 15y ago

Your father helped me like that, too!

briansage 15y ago

Thanks for the comments :) Your father helped me like that, too!

RaizedByWolves 15y ago

It's actually wrong. Google used CSS keyframes http://pastie.org/2810243 http://pastie.org/2810243

bcrescimanno 15y ago

Out of curiosity: why is the fact that this effect was achieved with a few simple lines of CSS3 (whether it was keyframe animations or simply a rotate transition doesn't really matter) front page news? Maybe I'm just jaded because I'm a UI engineer--but the "trick" wasn't particularly impressive (though it was quite amusing--and would have been even more so if they'd used HTML5 audio to get Slippy Toad in there).

Groxx 15y ago
Front-page with only 40 points after 2 hours. It doesn't seem like it'll stay there for very long, the HN algorithm just gives a lot of weight to early + fast risers. And yeah, a Slippy sound-bite would have made it another level of awesome :D
tomcreighton 15y ago
I'm surprised by this too, but as I recall the same thing happened when a bunch of sites were discovered to have the Konami code. Leveraging nerd nostalgia = big return.

bonch 15y ago

As a kid who grew up playing the original Star Fox, I LOVE THIS But it's not from the original Star Fox.

rplnt 15y ago

And this one is not blocked in Opera.