Google is showering Velma with confetti and gay-pride flags after the longtime member of the “Scooby-Doo” crew has officially been confirmed as a lesbian.
In a new Easter egg that appeared Wednesday, Google Search queries for “Velma,” “Velma Scooby-Doo,” “Velma Dinkley” (the character’s full name) and even “Dinkley” yield a regular search-results page — along with a cascade of multicolored confetti and various LGBTQ flags. The Google Search page then pops up two buttons at the bottom of the page: one to replay the animation, and another to share the search result via Facebook, Twitter or email (along with a trio of gay pride flag icons).
Google Search is celebrating Velma’s coming out in the new animated movie “Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!,” which shows her majorly crushing on Coco Diablo, the head of a costume crime syndicate. The scenes with Velma going gaga over Diablo confirmed fans’ long-held beliefs about Velma’s sexual identity.
“We saw a long-anticipated moment for a character people love, and had a good feeling it’d be an identity-affirming surprise for fans around the world,” said Anthony Irwin, Google senior interaction designer, about the Velma search Easter egg. “We didn’t expect it to be so well received, resonating across so many different cultures and age groups, but people need things to be happy about, and when we can help everyone celebrate together, that’s pretty great.”
Emma Freeman, a Google software engineer who also worked on the Velma project, “We have loved seeing the response from both the fans who grew up with the franchise finally getting a chance to celebrate the acknowledgement of her sexuality and younger fans who get to grow up seeing themselves represented.”
“Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!” was released Oct. 4 on digital for rent or purchase and will be streaming on HBO Max starting Oct. 15. In the new movie, per its description, “menacing doppelgänger ghosts of the Scooby crew and favorite classic foes show up in Coolsville to threaten Halloween.”
Note that Google Search already featured an Easter egg that shows up on searches for “gay pride” or “LGBT pride”: click on the rainbow-colored heart, and you unleash a wave of confetti and a flag-waving parade along the bottom of the page.
The Velma gay-pride Easter egg in Google Search works on both mobile and desktop browsers:
It’s not the first time Google has hidden pop-culture Easter eggs in its search engine.
Earlier this year, it launched a special Batman bat-signal animation timed for the release of “The Batman” movie and one for K-pop superstars BTS, which unleashes purple balloons you can pop with a click or tap to unlock audio messages from band members. It also has Easter eggs for “Friends,” displaying special icons on searches for each of the lead characters — Chandler Bing, Phoebe Buffay, Monica Geller, Ross Geller, Rachel Green and Joey Tribbiani — that activate unique animations (e.g., Phoebe singing “Smelly Cat”).
Those are in addition to classic Google Search Easter eggs that have been tucked in there for years, such as those triggered when you search for “do a barrel roll,” “googly eyes” or “askew.” Meanwhile, when you query “is Google down?” the results return a terse “No.”
