festive - Tag Archive

Google Christmas crackers!

1 Reply Christopher Roberts

Google always strike me as a fun and playful global giant, which always tries to be a little bit eccentric and different. This year in the run up to Christmas, I have so far found three of Google’s ‘Easter egg’ – which is basically another way of saying hidden, but findable jokes.

The first of the Easter eggs I have found is some Christmas lights. These come up underneath the search box when you search for the word ‘Christmas’ or many different phrases with the world ‘Christmas’ in them, like ‘Merry Christmas’. It’s not much, but it is festive 🙂

Google's Easter Egg Christmas LightsThe second Easter egg is much more exciting! When you search for the words ‘Let It Snow’ Google will take you to the search result, and everything will seem normal – for a second or two. Then all of a sudden, snowflakes will start to fall from the top of your browser, and the screen will start to mist up! You can then demist your browser either by clicking ‘Defrost’ or by using your mouse – although you still need to click the button to start using Google again. Its a really good touch by Google, really gets you in the holiday spirit!

Snow falling on a Google search page

When you type 'Let It Snow' into Google, it starts snowing in your browser!

Google Frosted/Misted Up

After a few seconds of snow, Google becomes very frosty!

The final Easter egg I have found is with the Google owned site YouTube. On some videos – I still haven’t found a link – a snowflake icon comes up on the bottom bar of the video, which if you click, gives you falling snow over the video, which you can control with your mouse.

After a bit of research I have found one more Easter egg! If you type in ‘Hanukkah’ you get some special decorations, which appear like the Christmas lights, underneath the search box.

Finally, something that isn’t actually hidden, but worth mentioning is Google’s message from Santa. SendACallFromSanta.com is courtesy of Gmail, and lets you design a personalised message which Santa can either phone home with, (if you live in the USA or Canada) or create an animated video which can be sent via email. It is totally free and can be used for Children and Adults alike, due to the various serious and humorous options.

Google seem to want to get us in the festive spirit, so now give you my festive wishes 🙂

Merry Christmas Everyone!

JibJab’s 2011 year review

7 Replies Christopher Roberts

As Christmas is just around the corner, I am trying to write more light hearted, fun posts, to try to get everyone in the festive spirit.

At the end of every year, JibJab publish their take on the year, in the form of a (usually very funny) video. The video tries to stuff as much news and humour into about two minutes as it possible can.

JibJab's LogoThe 2011 video has just been released, so I thought I would share it around 🙂

You have to watch the video three or four times to see how much they have included, as they really do put so much in!

This year gives mention to the Arab Spring, the collapse of the News of the World, the anti-capitalist protests, the London riots, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Americas loss of its AAA credit rating, Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, Rebecca Black, Justin Bieber, the Royal Wedding, Steve Jobs and so much more!

Here for your enjoyment is JibJab’s 2011 year review, called 2011 Buh-Bye!

%CODEYOUTUBEJIBJAB2011%

Good video isn’t it 🙂

What’s your take on the year? What have JibJab missed out, that probably should have been included?


If you really enjoyed that, head over to the JibJab originals page for more year reviews and fun 🙂

Let it snow!

22 Replies Christopher Roberts

There are just 15 days to go before Christmas now, and I am a little behind on the old Christmas shopping – this one seems to have crept up rather quickly!

Trees in Lapland covered in snowTo get in the festive spirit, Technology Bloggers is now experiencing snow showers! Its winter (in the northern hemisphere at least) and in winter, it snows, therefore I thought it appropriate to let it snow on Technology Bloggers.

To create the snow, I am using a very clever little plugin called: Let it snow!


Let is snow! is a really easy to use and customise plugin. Just install the plugin via WordPress (or download it and then upload it to your site) and then click ‘Activate’. You then get snow on your blog, and it is that easy!

The plugin also creates a useful and really easy to use settings tab. Just look down the left hand side of your WordPress menu and find Let It Snow! There you can customise things like whether the snow follows the mouse, sticks to the bottom of the screen, how much snow their is, etc.

Why not give it a go on your own blog, its easy to do, and doesn’t actually appear to affect the performance of your site very much at all!

If anyone is experiencing lag (I am not) please don’t hesitate to contact me 🙂

Merry Christmas everyone, stick with us for a fantastic future 🙂