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Shock your friends with this clever practical joke on Google
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Do you want to prank your friends/coworkers using Google? There is a URL trick which makes it appear as though there are no results for a search term, and it baffles anyone who doesn't know about it.
Things You Should Know
- Begin by conducting a traditional Google search.
- Add "&num=0" to the end of the Google search result's URL to limit the number of results to zero.
- Show this new URL to the person you want to prank.
Steps
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-
Go to Google. -
Search for a popular search term. This could be anything from "linux" to "real estate". It doesn't have to be extremely popular, just common enough that there will be quite a few listings.Advertisement -
Add &num=0 to the end of the URL in the URL box. This forces Google to limit the number of results, in this case, to 0. Using a negative number instead will also work. -
Show the URL to the person you want to prank. You can accomplish this in a variety of ways, including emailing them the link, or just showing them your computer screen. The person will likely be very surprised, and may call their friends over to see. -
Conduct a search for something if the people being pranked start to worry. Once you conduct a search in the search box, it will show all results normally and you can laugh at them.
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Tips
- You can use the &num= trick with other numbers, like to make it look as though there is one result.Thanks
- There are also tricks that accomplish the same feat involving Boolean search terms , though this method is easier to conceal.Thanks
- Use the Date Range method for people who don't know much about Google syntax.Thanks
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Warnings
- Avoid showing this to people who know a lot about Google, as they will know how you did it.Thanks
- If you email the link, they may notice the code at the end.Thanks
- If you show this to people, tell them how it works so they won't think there is a problem. You wouldn't want someone calling tech support about this.Thanks
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Things You'll Need
- A computer
- Internet
- A little bit of knowledge about Google
- A person to prank
About This Article
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 107,920 times.
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