It’s pretty sad that someone so out of touch with Internet culture can actually be a technology correspondent for a major media company’s blog, but that’s the case with Ned Potter of ABC News. Earlier this week a Google Easter egg was discovered in the companies search service.  If you typed the words “do a barrel roll” in to the search box, it would make the screen rotate like if it did a, gasp, barrel roll.

Now, any self-respecting geek can tell you where this comes from. It’s clearly alluding to StarFox 64, the classic Nintendo 64 game.

Just incase that didn’t make it obvious enough, the query “z or r twice” gave the same barrel roll animation. As you can see in the video, z or r twice is the combination you need to press on the N64 controller to execute the demanded barrel roll maneuver.

Now that we got the background out of the way, can anyone please explain how this could possibly allude to Apple? HOW CAN THIS POSSIBLY ALLUDE TO APPLE?! 

It can’t. But our buddy Ned Potter obviously thinks so.  He has since edited his original post, but it’s OK, because I figured he would and took some screen shots.

“Is it a takeoff on Apple’s iPhones and iPads with their built-in accelerometers – those little gizmos that tell a device when it’s been moved, turned on its side, propped up with one end on top? One blogger suggested Google is invoking Nintendo’s ‘Star Fox.’”

But now the post reads:

"Many Twitter posts asked if it was a takeoff on Apple’s iPads, with their built-in accelerometers so that their screens turn if you turn the device (the New York Times’ Bits blog called the effect “Siri-like”). At least one blogger suggested Google was invoking Nintendo’s 'Star Fox.'"

That’s very different. He’s trying to deflect the poor research onto Twitter users. He mentioned “one blogger” in the original post, yet no mention of twitter users. The first line clearly reads like his own idea. Also, if he only saw this mentioned by one blogger, then that must mean he only read one blog. Almost every blog I follow had a short post about the html5 trick, and recognized it as a reference to StarFox. Potter is the only one that didn’t. I also have no idea what the NYT guys mean by “Siri-like.” Seems like another case of major media getting technology wrong since a screen flipping after a manual text input has no connection to a voice operated personal assistant. The only loose connection I can gather is that Siri responds to certain queries with geeky responses, like saying the meaning of life is 42, a reference to The Hitchhikers Guide.  

Neddy goes on to tell us that Google denied this was a reference to StarFox:

"Today’s fun query, ‘do a barrel roll,’ was created by a Google software engineer with the primary goal of entertaining users — while showcasing the power of CSS3, a presentation feature of modern browsers. The “do a barrel roll” query, which causes the search page to spin, will remain in place for a while."

I don’t know about you, but that’s not how I read that. Google explained why they created the effect, but never denied it being a reference to StarFox. If it wasn’t the “z or r twice” wouldn’t produce the same effect.

Either way, it seems like both writers used Apple as a way to attract more eyes to their stories. A pathetic attempt at link baiting.