On google search, you have the variable window.location.search = "?gfe_rd=cr&ei=XXXGyZiVNHoFcuF8Qe7wYHACw&gws_rd=ssl"

That string is appended to the url of the iframe: src="https://foobar.withgoogle.com/"+window.location.search

The code snippet will only load the URL with appended values if there are present in the parent URL: e.g. https://www.google.com/foobar/?some_query_string

Why do I find it irritating? Because it seems both elitist and adolescent, in a child-like "secret society" sort of way.

That pretty much sums up the people I have met that work in Google engineering. I have only met a few at conferences, but thanks for putting words to the initial feelings I got from them all.

If your Google searches are not linked with your Google account or if you search using different search engines, you're out of the game.

Has it occurred to any of you that we might do these things for sheer fun, because doing that is not only allowed but celebrated?

I'm not signed in to Google as a matter of course, and I block their ads, so I provide them very little value. As a result, I won't be able to use "foobar", whatever the hell it is.

Seems fair. Isn't really that irritating, is it? :-)

EDIT: Turns out you need a history of googling this stuff. My heavy Python phase in school was timed wrong it seems.