Bletchley Park: Google easter egg wraps Enigma site’s search results up in code
Google has had a long fondness for the site, providing cash to provide important papers
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Searching Google for Bletchley Park, the site of the breaking of the Enigma code, turns up its own puzzle — which Google then neatly resolves, commemorating the site’s history.
A simple Google of Bletchley Park generates a bunch of code — different every time — which then resolves itself into the normal Google result for the site, written in a typeface reminiscent of early computers.
The Easter egg is a reminder of Bletchley Park’s central role in cracking the Enigma code, a history remembered in the recent film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing.
Google has a fondness for Bletchley Park. It has provided funding for the purchase of key historical papers and helped preserve important parts of the site’s history.
The house was opened in 1938 as a code-breaking centre, where some of the brightest people in Britain were moved and broke the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers.
The work done there in codebreaking is thought to have been central to shortening the war, and perhaps giving the Allies their victory.
Bletchley Park is now a museum, opened in 1993, where it hosts the National Museum of Computing and a number of other exhibits including the house itself and wartime cars. The computing museum hosts some of the first computers built by Turing as part of the codebreaking attempts.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments