5 Funny Firefox Easter Eggs You Have to Try

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 28 Jan 2016

I’ve been using Mozilla’s Firefox for years and years now, but I’ve always focused on the functionality, on the things you can do with the web browser. And when a new Firefox version is rolled out the public, I always focus on what new features have been introduced.

Firefox’s fun side hasn’t made the news, not because Firefox lacks one, but because I never bothered to look into the matter. That changes now! Here are the most amusing Easter Eggs that Mozilla’s Firefox has to offer.

1. Run Firefox within Firefox

You can open a new Firefox instance inside the Firefox web browser. All you have to do is enter the following command into the address bar:

chrome://browser/content/browser.xul

You can open up to three instances using the above command.



By the way, you do know that Firefox’s address bar is known as the Awesome Bar, right?


2. This might void your warranty, so be careful

Forget about the Options menu. If you want to dig down and modify Firefox’s core settings, you have to type in about:config.

You’ll be greeted with a message saying that “this might void your warranty”. To continue you have to promise you’ll be careful.




3. Hello humans, we come in peace

Type about:robots into Firefox’s address bar and a “Welcome Humans!” message will show up. The message is from robots who “have shiny metal posteriors which should not be bitten.” That’s obviously a reference to Futurama’s Bender, the robot whose trademark catchphrase is “Bite my shiny metal @#$.”



If you click the Try Again button, you’ll get a message that says “please do not press this button again.” If you disregard the message and click one more time, the button disappears.

Take a look at the about:robots tab. It says “Gort! Klaatu barada nikto.” That’s one of the most iconic phrases in Sci-Fi. It’s from the 1951 science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. It’s also mentioned in the 2008 remake and in the 1992 classic horror movie, Army of Darkness.




4. So sayeth the Book of Mozilla

Type about:Mozilla into the address bar and you won’t learn more about the company. You’ll be presented with a red screen and a verse written as apocalyptic literature.



The verse is from the fictional Book of Mozilla, which includes several other verses. You can read all them here.

Before you get all creeped out, there is one thing you need to know. Mozilla traces its roots to Netscape, which had an interesting mascot: a green dragon-like lizard that could breathe fire. It is believed that the “beast” mentioned in The Book of Mozilla is the aforementioned mascot.




Tip

Type about:about to see a full list of all the "about" pages you can access.


5. A flying and colorful unicorn

Click the Menu button from the top right corner and you’ll see something like this.



But if you click on Customize and take all the icons out of the menu, something magical will happen. A unicorn will appear.



At first, the unicorn doesn’t feature any color. Place the mouse cursor over the unicorn and the colors will show up.




In related news...

Google’s search engine has plenty of Easter Eggs to offer, you just have to know what to look for. Go take a look at the 10 most amusing Easter Eggs that Google has baked into its search engine.

The latest Firefox release, at the time of writing this, is Firefox 44. Looking at the release notes reveals the biggest and most important new feature: push notifications. Thanks to this feature, a website can send you notifications, even if said website is not open in any tab.

You don’t have to keep a website open in a tab to see what’s new, the browser will notify you!



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