Google Gravity

Developer Mr.doob created Google Gravity in 2009 to demonstrate physics in the browser. The project was featured in the Chrome Experiments collection.

When the original page loads, the logo, search bar, buttons, and links tumble to the bottom of the screen. You can grab the pieces with your mouse, throw them around, and watch them bounce off each other. The experiment also once retrieved live Google results through the Google Web Search API, a service that let other websites use Google’s search results.

Google highlighted Gravity again in a 2012 Chrome Blog post marking 500 Chrome Experiments. It was one of the original experiments the post singled out as still popular.

The original experiment could no longer retrieve Google results after the Google Web Search API was retired in 2014. This edition lets the search button keep adding objects to the scene by using cards from this website.

The logo, search box, and links still fall into a pile that you can drag and toss around. This edition lets you do that with touch controls too, and adds a dark theme for the scene. When you want more pieces to play with, the search button adds randomly selected Easter egg cards from this website.

Click the button above and watch the homepage collapse, then grab the fallen pieces and throw them around. Use the search button to add a random Easter egg card to the pile and see how it bounces among the other pieces. You can switch between light and dark themes to see the scene against a different background.

In Google Gravity, the pieces fall and collect at the bottom of the screen. The related Floating Google experiment removes that downward pull, letting the same interface drift in zero gravity.