Easter eggs aren’t just something the Easter bunny hides. There’s another type of hidden Easter egg that is a treat for geeks of all ages to discover.

An Easter egg is also a moniker given to intentional hidden messages and hidden content in computer programs, websites, video games, movies, tv shows, books and works of art.

The first digital Easter Egg is believed to be contained in the 1979 Atari video game, Adventure, which contained a hidden reference to the name of its programmer, Warren Robinett. Earlier examples of Easter Eggs include Alfred Hitchcock making cameo appearances in his movies and the famous “hidden Mickeys” that can be found throughout the various Disney theme parks.

Today, web designers and web developers have been known to hide Easter Eggs in the websites they create. Sometimes when an Easter Egg is discovered by the public it is quickly removed, but sometimes they are left on the website for everyone to discover and enjoy. I’ve created a list of some the more fun & interesting website Easter Eggs that still work.

Facebook Pirate & Upside Down Languages

If you log into Facebook, scroll to the bottom of the page, click the language select in the bottom left and then click the downwards arrow beside English. You’ll be able to choose Pirate or Upside Down as language options, arhhh Matey!

YouTube Hidden Snake Game

To play the classic “Snake” video game simply go to YouTube and click on any video. Then while the video is playing or paused hold the Up and Left arrows keys on your keyboard. The circles that normally indicate the video is loading turn into a snake which you can control and gobble up other circles that appear to make the snake even longer.

Google “Tilt” Search on Mobile Phones

This Easter Egg requires a mobile phone. On your iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone search the word “tilt” on Google.com and scroll down through the search results. You’ll notice the results are slightly tilted.

WordPress Matrix Easter Egg

One of our Fizzelopers, Dean, accidentally discovered this Easter Egg while working on one of our clients websites recently. If you log into the WordPress content management system, select a page to edit and try to compare a revision of the page against itself… you’ll then enter the Matrix!

Websites with the Konami Code

Those of us who had a Nintendo Entertainment System back in the 80’s are familiar with the Konami code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Enter). The Konami code was originally created to make it easier for the video game developer Konami’s programmers to test the now classic video game Contra. Players of the game eventually discovered the code and it has since been inserted into 100’s of video games to unlock secret features and hidden content. Recently websites have also started to include the Konami code to unlock secret content.

Here are just a few websites that feature the Konami code:

• GameSpot

  Enter the Konami code on the GameSpot website and you’ll be taken to a page with the contra hints & cheats page.

• Soundclick

  Enter the Konami code on the Soundclick website and you’ll be presented with a giant piece of bacon which is then eaten.

• GamePro

  Enter the Konami code on the GamePro website to see footage of the early 90’s tv show with the same name. I remember thinking this show was so cool back in the day.

If you’d like to see an extensive list of websites that feature the Konami code check out the Konami Code Sites website, konamicodesites.com

More Google Easter Eggs

Google is the perhaps the most prolific company at hiding Easter Eggs. They hide Easter Eggs in their search results and in their many web applications. While Google may hide an Easter Egg at any time throughout the year, geeks eagerly anticipate what Google will do on April 1st as one of their numerous April fools’ pranks. Some of Google’s April fools’ pranks are obvious and easily discovered while others remain hidden for weeks or months.

Here are a few Google Easter Eggs and April fools’ pranks you can still see today:

• Google Hidden Pacman

  This was originally released as a Google doddle to mark the 30th anniversary of the original Pacman video game. Insert a coin to start playing, insert another coin to play as Ms. Pacman too.

• Google ASCII Art Search

  Just go to Google.com and search “ascii art” without the quotes to see the Google logo transformed into to an ASCII version.

• Google Language Options

  Go to the Google.com homepage, click language options. If you look carefully you’ll see you can choose Elmer Fudd, Klingon, Hacker and Pirate.

• Google Maps Field Fox

  Go to the URL above to see the Mozilla Firefox embedded in a farmers field in Oregon.

• Google Calculator “answer to life, the universe and everything”

  Go to Google.com and search for “answer to life, the universe and everything” without the quotes to be presented with Google’s answer.

Website Easter Eggs That No Longer Work (but are worth mentioning)

• Facebook – Glowing Circles
  Up until January of 2011 if you entered the Konami code on Facebook and then tried to click or type glowing circles would appear on the screen. You can check out a video of this Facebook Easter Egg in the video above.
• ESPN – Unicorns!
  Another example of the Konami code revealing hidden content was on ESPN.com. Entering the code on the homepage of ESPN would fill your screen with unicorns and rainbows . Unfortunately this Easter Egg was removed shortly after it was discovered. The video above preserves this Easter egg for all prosperity though.

More Easter Eggs!

If you’re interested in finding more about hidden Easter Eggs in software, movies, books, TV shows, and works of art be sure to checkout the Easter Egg Archive, the web’s largest compilation of Easter Eggs at www.eeggs.com.

Maybe entering the Konami code on this blog post would reveal an Easter Egg, you never know…