Click the Master Sword, Travel Back to Google in 1998

Click the Master Sword, Travel Back to Google in 1998

Searching "Zelda" summons the Master Sword

Search for "zelda" or "Ocarina of Time" on Google and a small Master Sword appears in the bottom-right corner of the results page, hovering above its pedestal from the Temple of Time. Clicking or tapping it triggers a time-travel animation. Multiple gaming and tech outlets reported the secret on November 2, days before the remake launches.

Push the sword in, watch the web turn old

Clicking the sword drops it into the pedestal, plays Link's shout, and distorts the screen into a time-travel effect. The results page then reverts to the look of Google in 1998: the old Google logo complete with its long-forgotten exclamation mark, the "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" buttons side by side, and results shown as a plain series of blue links. It is deliberately minimalist, a sharp contrast with today's page.

No announcement, just fan service before launch

Google issued no formal statement, as usual with its search secrets. The meaning is in the interaction itself: in Ocarina of Time, adult Link pushes the Master Sword back into its pedestal and is sent back through time as young Link. The Google version lets users perform that same gesture. One outlet noted it also callbacks to "Google in 1998," one of the oldest surviving Google Easter eggs.

The remake behind it arrives Thursday on Switch 2

The occasion is the full remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive launching Thursday, November 5, 2026. The original debuted on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, first in Japan on November 21, 1998 and then in North America on November 23, 1998. The remake rebuilds the game with overhauled visuals, fully voiced cutscenes, orchestral music, and features such as gyro aiming and songs played through the console's microphone.

Press and players get a free trip first

Coverage landed within hours from gaming and tech press, largely framed as the most nostalgic Google gaming secret yet, following past Splatoon, Pokemon, and Katamari experiments. For veteran players it is a free time trip; for newcomers it is the most direct trailer possible for Thursday's launch: pull the sword out of the browser before returning to Hyrule. Discussion: Did you play the original Ocarina of Time back in the day, and what do you remember most about it? If remakes keep coming, which classic deserves this treatment next, and why?