Happy April Fools to all my readers!
This was my first April Fools in the office (since I’ve only been working here for 5 months), so here’s a look at what’s going on today.
The boss
We have two entrances to the office, both of which have signs up saying “please use other door” with arrows pointing in opposite directions.
So far the reception has been excellent ^_^
Here are some other April Fools day pranks from around the world this morning:
- YouTube: This video has 4000+ likes, 500+ dislikes, but only 304 views, a number which doesn’t seem to change.
- The Independent: Portugal ‘sells’ Ronaldo to Spain in €160m deal on national debt
- Think Geek: Minecraft USB desktop nether portal
- Google: Gmail Motion Beta
- Jack of Kent: Why “skepticism” is now just another cult
- Google Chrome launches an extension called “Comic Sans for Everyone,” complete with accompanying research
- Queensland News: Nessie-like creature spotted in Sydney Harbour
- The Spoof: Evolutionists refute Evolution
- Wildlife Extra: Trafalgar Square to be transformed into wildlife haven (I can’t tell whether this is fake or not, but it seems rather bizarre either way)
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day archive uploaded this image for April Fools.
- Google looking to hire auto-completers
- LinkedIn adds famous people to the people you may know
- The Pirate Bay claimed it had a bid for eBay on eBay and won!
- Google Adwords: Display Ad Builder now offers old school ad units such as “punch the monkey,” “pop-ups galore,” “LOLcats,” and “congratulations, you’ve won!”
- Soundcloud: customised backgrounds offered, including themes for Moby and Queens of the Stone Age
- Toshiba launches the worlds first 3D monocle
- Richard Branson buys Pluto and reinstates it as a planet
- Newslite announced that Facebook was installing optional baby and wedding filters, allowing users to turn off any annoying conversations around these themes
- Google Helvetica and Comic Sans. It might not just be an April fools day prank, but in case it is here’s a screen shot.
- More from Google: Google translate for animals
It’s clear from the above examples that April Fools day has become about much more thank simply pranking one another. It’s become a very useful marketing tool providing a platform to websites with decent campaigns so that they may have the opportunity to go viral.
