Let it snow! And five other super-fun Google tricks

For those who haven't tried it yet, pull Google up on your browser and type in the words "let it snow." Then enjoy a snow flurry right on your computer screen.

To keep the wintery fun going, Google also added a frosty element to the experience: As the snow continues to fall, your computer screen will fog up. Click the "defrost" button to clear it, or use a mouse to draw hearts, or initials or whatever else you want in the fog. You can click defrost at any time to start over again.

A spokeswoman from the company sent the following statement about the Let It Snow trick in poem form:

"Through the fog, you have to peer
Because it's the most wonderful time of the year
Your page turned into a winter wonderland
When you typed in that search command
You can always defrost the window
Or just let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Well, it's not a poetry house, but they do like to have fun.

Google has some other neat tricks up its sleeve, and if your work is slow for the holidays, now might be a perfect time to try them.

1. Type in the word "askew" into the search engine. Tilt your head and enjoy.

2. Type in the word "tilt." Hold your head askew and enjoy.

3. Type in the word "recursion." Google will wonder if perhaps you meant to type the word "recursion."

4. Google didn't forget Jews. Type in the word "Hannukah" for some festive non-Christmas holiday screen decor.

5. Type in "anagram." Google will wonder if perhaps you meant "nag a gram."

Unfortunately, some of the Google classic tricks are no longer functioning. It used to be that if you typed in the words "Chuck Norris" you would get a statement that says, "You don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you."

There was also a time when if you typed the word "Gravity" into the search engine you'd watch all the copy on the page plunk to the bottom. It doesn't do that anymore, but you can see what you missed here: http://mrdoob.com/projects/chromeexperiments/google_gravity/ .

Happy holidays!

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