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Google keeps it fresh with Fresh Prince of Bel-Air search surprise

Prepare to get flipped-turned upside down.

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
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Click the FRESH license plate to flip your search results.

 Google

Remember when Will Smith first started rapping about how his life "got flipped-turned upside down" when his mom sent him to live with his "auntie and uncle in Bel Air?" Yeah, believe it or not, it was 30 years ago Thursday that The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air debuted on TV.

During its six-season run, the sitcom would follow the humor clashes created when Smith's working-class character from West Philadelphia went to live with his upper-class relatives in Southern California. It would also launch Smith's Hollywood career, which includes many blockbuster movies and two Academy Award nominations.

To mark this occasion of us all feeling a bit older, Google has planted a surprise in its search results. Merely search for "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and a personalized FRESH license plate will appear. Click on it and, well, your world will be "flipped-turned upside down." The trip down memory lane wouldn't be complete without Google reminding you of what its search results page looked like in the '90s. Clicking on the Freshened Google logo flips you back.

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The search surprise comes two days after Smith confirmed a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot is officially happening. Bel-Air is getting two seasons on new streaming service Peacock, Smith said in a YouTube video Tuesday.

This isn't the first time Google has planted a surprise in its search results. In April 2019, in the run-up to the release of the movie Avengers: Endgame, a simple Google query for Thanos, the supervillain who snapped away half the universe in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, would instantly turn search results to dust.

To celebrate Easter earlier this year, Google planted an augmented reality rabbit, complete with a festive bow tie, on users' mobile screens when they searched for Easter-related terms. Google celebrated the Fourth of July this year with a flurry of brightly colored fireworks for searches about Independence Day.

For more-challenging results, search on Google for "askew," "anagram" or "do a barrel roll." (Pro tip: Keep the Dramamine handy for the last one.)