It should come as no surprise at this point that the internet has opened up a whole new world of pranking, especially on April Fool’s Day. Bigger websites have even made a tradition out of these practical jokes based on all of the positive feedback they’ve received over the years. All in all, people have come to look forward to new surprises from their favorite websites today and often make the effort to find as many as possible.
Heres hoping the following list of pranks helps readers out.
Google, as usual, heads the pack with not one, but four pranks. Try out the Gmail Motion, a new way of organizing your e-mail via body language. Docs Motion followed suit by applying the same technology to documents and PowerPoint presentations. If you’re tired of waking up to find you’ve drunk called and texted people you don’t even know, there’s the Google Voice-alyzer. If the Voice-alyzer determines a person is too drunk to make a call, it will prevent it from going through and instead make a hasty call for a cab for its user. For the sober person looking for some decent employment, Google’s also raised a signal in search of a few new Auto-completers. Spend your days guessing the endings of users’ search enquiries in the exciting world of Auto-completing. Finally, for Google, head over to their main page and search for ‘Helvetica’ for a bit of a frustrating surprise.
Youtube, never far behind from its mother, is celebrating their 100th anniversary in style. The 1911 feature lets users experience Youtube the way it was its first year in business. Sepia color and jaunty piano tunes can now add some grace to even the most undignified video. They’ve even added a special blog entry and overview of the century’s top five viral pictures.
Hulu, a site notorious for videos of a different sort, did some of its own time traveling as well. Frightfully, it’s taken us back to 1996, to all of the horror that is poor HTML, Geocities, and Netscape. Thankfully, they’ve also included a pretty obvious link to take us back to the future, where downloading a single image doesn’t take over an hour.
Thinkgeek is also getting in on the action with a few products we almost wish were real. They’ve even made a commercial for Star Wars Popsicles, which are “’saber-lickin’ good!” The fake product even includes a recipe book with a whole set of word play, though the site will inform you that this is not the stock you’re looking for. If that’s not up you’re alley they’ve also included the PLAYMOBIL Apple Store Playset for the real Apple experience at home and Angry Bird Porkrinds for the hungry game fan set on vengeance. If you like any of the three, however, don’t be too disheartened. Thinkgeek has created some of their past April Fool’s gags as actual products following their extreme popularity on the big day.
If these are not enough, The Pirate Bay bought out eBay and Virgin bought Pluto! Be on the lookout for more fun finds like these as the day goes on, because there's sure to be many.
Mallory "Friday" Soto is the Editor of Cool Sh!t, Joonbug's source for internet culture, tech, charity, and the arts. A former Lit zine editor and comic book fan, she comes from a background of short stories and tales of masked vigilantes. She's a native New Yorker and avid video game fan.