Whether or not you celebrate Easter, who doesn’t love a great Easter egg -- that hidden gem of code that makes you squeal like a 5-year-old when you find it? In honor of the Easter Beagle and Marshmallow Peeps everywhere, today we’re going to make your egg hunt ridiculously easy.

Here’s a roster of the hidden treasures you’ll find tucked into corners across Yahoo!:

• Yahoo! Logo Yodel: Click on the exclamation point in our homepage logo to get your yodel fix anytime you need it.
• Yahoo! Mail Subject-o-matique: Stumped for a catchy, evocative email subject line? Just click the “subject” line button when composing or replying to a message, and Yahoo! Mail will cure your writer’s block with a slew of unforgettable one liners (e.g., “My train of thought has derailed,” “Impressive rutabaga!,” and “You! Off my planet!”).
• Yahoo! Messenger Hidden Emoticons: In addition to our dozens of government-issue emoticons, an army of hidden smileys awaits. You’ll find assorted animals, holiday festives, and favorites like “chatterbox,” “not worthy,” “oh go on,” and “I don’t know.”
• Yahoo! Messenger IMVironment: Choose an interactive background, or IM environment, for your Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 IM window and use the BUZZ feature to trigger a surprise.
• Flickr Image Spewing Panda: What could make anyone happier than a rainbow-barfing panda who delivers a continuous stream of interesting Flickr images?
• Flickr Holiday Snow: Wrong season, but if you ever want to make it snow fall on your Flickr photo page, just add ?snow=1 to the end of any photo URL. Like this.
• Flickr Astrometry: Want to find out what planets, galaxies, or nebulae are resident in the starry-night photo you just took? Upload it here. And know that you’re contributing to the open-source sky survey at the same time.
• Yahoo! Maps Sea Monsters: Did you know a quartet of ornery sea creatures lives just west of the Golden Gate Bridge? It's true. Just go to Yahoo! Maps.
• Yahoo!’s Anti-Values: Not sure if this one really qualifies, since it falls in the shameless-self-promotion category. But while our company values probably aren’t among your favorite bookmarks, don’t miss our covert “What Sucks” list.

Know of other great Easter eggs, on Yahoo! or elsewhere on the Web? Share!

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor