X

Google-Asteroids: Blast your way through search terms

Google search turns into a vintage video game with Google-Asteroids. Fly your triangle ship through space and blast away to reveal search results.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
Google-Asteroids search results
Each Asteroid stands for a search result. Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET

If you think searching the Internet is way too fast and easy, I have the perfect online game for you. Google-Asteroids makes you slow down and really savor the search experience, one laser blast at a time.

Created by Masswerk.at, Google-Asteroids is labeled as an "info-shooter." You have to blast your way through the alphabet letter by letter to set your search term. Launch the search and you find yourself in an old-school-gaming asteroid field. Blast away at the asteroids floating by and you slowly reveal the search results in your score list.

There's an element of randomness to this. You may reveal the fifth-ranked search result before you find and blast apart the first or second-ranked search result. Once you have the results stacked up as scores, you can click them to get to the desired page.

The cheesy graphics, little triangle ship, and crude space rocks really capture the feel of Asteroids. It's a blast from the gaming past combined with modern search power. Google-Asteroids isn't likely to replace your default browser search box, but it's highly entertaining when you have a few extra minutes to kill.

Google-Asteroids
Game your way through Google search. Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET

(Via Hacker News/Twitter)