Google’s Zelda Easter egg turns search into a 1998 page of seven curated blue links

Google is marking the imminent release of the Ocarina of Time remaster with a temporary search Easter egg that carries users back to 1998. Ars Technica describes the trick, and the page it produces makes a useful Geek Culture comparison with the way a results page looks today.

How to trigger the Zelda search trick

The trigger is short and behaves the same way on a phone or a computer. Here is the sequence:

1. Search Google for “Zelda” or “Ocarina of Time”.
2. Let the usual 2026 results page load. An animated Master Sword sits in the lower right corner.
3. Click the sword, on mobile or on desktop.
4. Watch the time-skipping animation, which includes a shout from Link.

Google does not replace the page right away. It first serves the standard results of 2026, and the sword is the only sign that something else is waiting. Both search terms work, so a query about the game itself or about its title opens the same door.

What 1998 looks like on the results page

Once the animation ends, the screen becomes a plain list of blue links under retro Google branding. Ars Technica notes that the effect suits the time-shifting mechanics of Ocarina of Time.

The list is curated, not the output of a live search. Classic Google offered 10 links on each page, whereas the Easter egg includes seven. They cover the official Nintendo Zelda page, the Zelda entry on Wikipedia and Zelda games on Amazon, plus a couple more.

Ars Technica calls it a very limited experience: you can look at the retro page, but you cannot really use it as a search engine.

Because the seven entries were picked in advance, what appears on screen is fixed, and the links point to destinations tied directly to the franchise: the publisher’s own Zelda site, an encyclopedia entry and a retail listing for the games, as Ars Technica reports.

The page also draws on the game’s own theme. Ars Technica says the shift into the past fits well with the time-travel mechanics that Ocarina of Time is built around, which gives the animation and the dated look a logical tie to the title being celebrated.

Back to 2026, and what has changed

Clicking the sword a second time returns you to the modern results whenever you want. Typing a new query into the retro interface does the same thing at once, and you land on a 2026 page. That page carries AI content, sponsored content, suggested searches and links to social media. The jump from a short list of seven links to that busier layout is the clearest contrast the trick offers.

Ars Technica’s author reads the exercise as a comparison between two eras of the same product. In that reading, the plain, minimalist starting point of Google search shows how far the company’s core service has moved, since generative AI now sits within the results. That view is the author’s own opinion, and Ars Technica adds that many people dislike the change.

The same piece suggests the company is probably using nostalgia to build excitement around Nintendo’s launch, which is the author’s guess rather than a stated aim from Google.

Why Ocarina of Time, and why now

Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, the same year Google and Ars Technica came online. The remaster has been completely re-created, with Switch 2 graphics, modern controls for movement and the camera, and quality-of-life improvements.

The Easter egg is described as temporary, so the sword is meant to disappear from the results page after the launch window.

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