Seems nothing is sacred in the ongoing battle between the Search powerhouse of Mountain View and the Office giant of Redmond.
Two years ago around this time, we pointed out a rather fun hidden away (hence the term Easter Egg) feature of Google's search engine, called Let It Snow. You went to the search giant's home page, typed in "Let it Snow", and clicked on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. Your screen instantly began snowing, covering everything up with wistfully falling flakes.
Looks like Microsoft's Internet Explorer once tried and has now beat Google to the punch this year. Use the same technique as above these days, and you'll receive this...
I tried things out in the Google Chrome browser. The snow-filled test site for IE appears to be still around from two years ago, but it wasn't the default for the "Let it Snow" search in the past. If you continue uncovering the snow-filled sign, you'll receive a happy seasonal message, along with a semi-advertisement about a GPU-filled 2011 and a nice yule-tide beat to enjoy.
The site would make for a nice screen-saver, if nothing else. Go ahead, set things up, turn up the volume, visit the break room for some hot cocoa, and make your co-workers either love or hate you...
If it weren't for the untimeliness of the message, I'd say Microsoft was up to its anti-Google Scroogled campaign antics again, as recently covered by Technorati listing TechCrunch. Maybe they should get on that and update the message for a joyful 2013 Season.
And let there be peace in search land.
via Technology articles at Technorati http://feeds09.technorati.com/~r/tr-technology/~3/Zq8ZCfYqo5Y/