Google’s ‘Zerg Rush’ Easter Egg Celebrates Starcraft Game

If you’re sitting at work bored out of your mind right now, try typing in “zerg rush” to Google search and play a fun point-and-shoot that sure beats filling out TPS reports on a Friday. The term Zerg is a nod to the enemy alien species from the video game Starcraft by Blizzard Entertainment. In Google’s version, your search results are quickly overtaken by a falling wave of Google-colored O’s- — zerglings capable of destroying your little blue links. To combat your enemy, you must click furiously over each enemy zergling to destroy it and stop the onslaught.

(Relate: ‘Do a Barrel Roll’ is Google’s Latest Loony Easter Egg)

But be careful: Not only must you defend your search page from the evil zerglings descending from above, but they can sneak up on you from the bottom of the page as well. You can monitor your anti-zergling abilities throughout the game as Google tracks your APM (actions per minute) and zergling head count. If the zerglings manage to destroy the left sidebar and all the results on your search page, you lose.

At the end of the battle, the remaining O’s slowly form into “GG” to congratulate you on a good game. Since my video game capabilities are less than stellar I couldn’t tell you what happens if you actually beat back the zerglings. Once you’re finished, you can share your score on Google+.

Google has all kinds of little Easter Eggs like “zerg rush” to entertain you. Once you’ve had enough of the zerglings try typing “tilt” or “do a barrel roll” into the Google search bar. You can also find all sorts of hidden Google goodies on PCWorld’s Great Google Easter Egg Roundup,” a collection of the top Easter Egg tricks we have discovered over the years.

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