How to Pull Off the "No Results" Google Prank

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posted on 16 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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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.

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.

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.