‘Let It Snow’ Easter Egg Brings Festive Joy To Google Users

Google has given its users an early Christmas present in the form of virtual snow when the words “let it snow” are typed into the search bar on the homepage.

The latest “Easter egg” offered by the search giant will be welcomed in particular by snow-starved British users who, according to recent weather reports, will not only be deprived of a white Christmas but will also be subjected to a mild winter.

Snow Joke For Some

Once the magic words have been entered, a gentle flurry of snow slowly fills the search screen, allowing users to draw pictures or words, revealing the search results, such as YouTube videos from Dean Martin, hidden underneath the white blanket.

The Easter egg continues Google’s long tradition of hidden extras and Google doodles and has pleased many users on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Although the snow is melted by one click on the defrost button, business owners will hope that the impact on productivity is not as severe as that of the popular Pac-Man doodle from last year.

The interactive doodle featured a playable version of the classic Namco arcade game and saw users spend more than 4.8 million hours playing the game, costing companies a staggering $120.5 million (£85.6m).

However not everyone is as receptive to Google’s customised doodles, with some users complaining that some of the more complex doodles place unnecessary strain on their computers, causing them to waste more energy and CPU power.

This was especially true of the Bucky Ball doodle, which initially used 100 percent of the CPU’s time, and it was argued could have been more efficient if it had been created using Flash rather than Javascript.