Google Zipper

Pull the tab, watch the page split

The teeth run straight down the middle of a clay panel. Grab the metal pull, drag it toward the bottom, and the fabric parts in a widening V that shows what has been sitting behind it the whole time. It is a stupidly satisfying interaction, which is exactly why the original doodle stuck in people’s heads.

Halfway down is the sweet spot. Wide enough to see the colours, tight enough that it still looks like a seam rather than an open page.

Four ways to open it

Dragging by hand gives you the most control and the best feel. The unzip button does the same thing on a smooth glide if you cannot be bothered. Yank it fast rips the whole thing open in about a third of a second, which looks like a coat being torn off. And the jam button locks the pull in place so it refuses to move and shakes when you try, which is a small piece of comedy that gets people every time.

The percentage readout in the corner is there because half the appeal of google zipper is stopping at an exact point and leaving it there.

Behind the fabric

Six bouncing letters on a violet field. Nothing complicated. The reveal is deliberately simple because the interaction is the show, not the payload.

A doodle people still search for by accident

It ran on 24 April 2012 for the anniversary of Gideon Sundbäck’s birthday, the engineer who made the modern zipper work. Since then people have hunted for it under every possible spelling. Google sipper, google ziper, google zippe, googlezipper, all of them land in the same place. There is even a stubborn crowd searching for google zipper 2048, which mixes up two completely different browser toys and somehow keeps trending anyway.

If you like the tactile ones, google guitar also responds to a drag rather than a click, and google gravity lets you throw the interface around. The complete set sits on the google easter eggs shelf, and goooooooooogle is the one to try if you want something that just keeps stretching.

Does it work on mobile?

Yes. Touch and drag behaves the same as a mouse, and the window shortens on small screens so the pull never runs off the edge. One finger is all it takes.