Avengers: Endgame Google Easter egg unleashes Thanos' gauntlet online
Be very careful if you're confronted by Google's Avengers: Endgame Easter egg.
Search results gone, courtesy of Thanos' gauntlet
Sure, seeing half the galaxy's population dissolve into dust with the snap of a finger is sad and stunning, but imagine if half your search results vanished just as quickly.
That's the downright scary proposition Google is offering search engine users who do a simple query for Thanos, the supervillain who snapped away half the universe in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. The follow-up, Avengers: Endgame, is now in theaters. (Read our spoiler-free and spoiler-filled reviews.) The Easter egg originally launched Wednesday afternoon but, as if snuffed out by Thanos, it quickly vanished until Thursday.
Like Rocket's advice to Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, don't push this button! Er, glove.
The search triggers an Easter egg that presents Thanos' Infinity-stone studded gauntlet in the upper right corner of Google's search results. But be warned that the power the image wields is far-reaching. Before your very eyes the random elimination of half the search results will unfold.
Google even gives you an updated count on search returns to show you the magnitude of your actions, displaying its familiar number of search results in the upper left corner. They decline from about 90 million results to just 45 million.
In Infinity War, Thanos, of course, used the glove to reduce the population of the galaxy because he thought it was too crowded. Perhaps Google secretly feels the same about search results on the web.
But take heart. Although those Thanos search results have vanished, you can restore them with another click on the mad titan's glove.
Endgame is here
- Spoiler-free review: Love letter to fans tops Infinity War
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- No postcredits scene, but there's a tiny audio stinger
- The biggest spoiler-filled WTF questions
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- Captain America will always be my favorite Avenger
This isn't the first time Google has planted an Easter egg in its search results. For less destructive but definitely more disorienting results, search on Google for "askew," "anagram" or "do a barrel roll." (Pro tip: Keep the Dramamine handy for the last one.)
Google's Easter egg comes as movie fans' anticipation grows for Avengers: Endgame. The movie, all three hours of it, opened April 24 in Australia, April 25 in the UK and April 26 in the US.
Originally published April 25.