Google Countdown?

UPDATE (1/1/10): As suspected, the Google Countdown has expired with the passing of 2009. But the Easter egg hasn’t disappeared completely. Now, a click on “I’m Feeling Lucky” sets off a cascade of multi-colored asterisk-fireworks, accompanied by “Happy New Year” text. There’s a screen shot after the break.

12/17/09 - There’s a rather ominous easter egg on the Google page and apparently it’s been around for a few days. No, it’s not an actual colored egg, but a hidden “feature” that was placed in a not-so-obvious place most likely by some bored engineers in Mountain View. If you go to the site and click “I’m Feeling Lucky” without entering anything in the text field, up pops a large countdown with no reference to what comes at the end.

Easter eggs have been placed in software for years – sometime in the 1990s, programmers actually hid a flight simulator in Microsoft Word – but Google has been particularly partial to the hidden gems.

So what do these ominous numbers portend? Be careful not to yawn when I tell you it’s just the new year. Yeah, like we haven’t seen those before. Google, call me when you have a countdown to first contact.