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Google celebrates Betty White's birthday with search Easter egg

Search results get special decorations to mark the late actress' 100th birthday.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Steven Musil
2 min read
Google

Betty White was a comedy icon who collected millions of fans the world over in a broadcast career that stretched well over half a century.

Her legions of fans were gearing up to celebrate the beloved actress' 100th birthday, which falls on Monday, when she died on Dec. 31. But that doesn't mean we can't still celebrate her wonderful life, and that's just what Google is doing.

The tech giant has planted a loving tribute in the form of an Easter egg in its search engine to commemorate the birthday of the late Golden Girls actor. Simply type "Betty White" into the search box, and the results page will be sprinkled with rose petals, an homage to the character of Rose that she played on the TV show, along with the message "Thank you for being a friend," the show's theme song.

White's broadcast career began in 1930, when she was just 8 years old and made an appearance on the radio program Empire Builders. While she's best known to many for her role as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s, she also played Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls from 1985 to 1992, and has appeared on countless other TV shows, as well as in films.

Google often hides Easter eggs in search results to commemorate significant people and events. In the past year, Google Easter eggs have celebrated the flight of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity, the annual May the 4th Star Wars Day and the freeing of the Ever Given cargo ship from its Suez Canal confines.

Happy birthday, Betty, and thank you for being our friend.