Zerg Rush Easter Egg One of Coolest Google Tricks Ever: Why?

By Alexandra Burlacu | Apr 28, 2012 10:48 AM EDT

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Google Doodles are very popular worldwide, but this time Google has a new surprise, bound to be a treat at least for gamers. On Friday, April 27, users who looked up the term "Zerg rush" (without the quotation marks) found the latest in a series of cool, geeky Easter eggs the Google team planted.

At first, your search result will appear on what seems to be a normal page, that is until the "O's" from the Google logo start multiplying and attacking the list of search results until the page is basically butchered. Needless to mention, it did not take long for the term "Zerg rush" to become a top Google search topic Friday morning.

As Starcraft fans know, in gaming terms a "Zerg rush" is when a player is overwhelmed by a huge number of low-level opponents - strength in numbers. The term came from Starcraft, the wildly popular real-time strategy game launched in 1998. In the game, a player could choose to play as an alien race called "Zergs," and they could unleash a massive number of weak units called "zerlings" and overwhelm their opponents.

The first instance of the term, notes Know Your Meme, occurred during a game among some Korean players. The term got its first Urban Dictionary definition in 2004, and the use has greatly expanded since. In multi-player games, for instance, the term refers to a gamer who creates several accounts in order to gain an advantage over other players. The term is also used as slang for a when someone is overwhelmed by superior numbers.

In the new Google "Zerg rush" frenzy, the "O's" from the Google logo are the attackers. They multiply and start banging themselves against the text on the page and users can click to "kill" them. Users are eventually overwhelmed and the "Zergs" end up eviscerating the page content.

"For n00bs who aren't as familiar with real-time strategy games, there's been a zerg rush on your search results page," a Google spokeswoman told Fox News. "Because there should always be time to practice your gaming skills, click on the zerg units to defend the results page and try not to get pwned. Then you can share your APM score on Google+. GLHF!"

Each user clicks on as many O's as possible, but at the end there are just too many Zergs to win. After they take out your results, the O's group together to spell out "GG," which means "good game" in gaming slang. The page will then display options to clear your screen or share your score. If you hit the "share your score" button, Google will add a post to your Google+ account, bragging "I defended against a #zergrush on Google Search." Good luck!

(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Dave Clark)

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