Web Pranks Run Rampant On April Fool’s Day

I woke up this morning and checked my Gmail and saw a new feature alert for “Google Custom Time“:

I thought to myself … er this could be a dangerous feature and not inline with Google’s ‘do no evil’ policy and thought no more of it. Then as the day went on I dug a little deeper – clicking past the Google Custom Time feature announcement on the Gmail homepage to the Learn More page it quickly becomes clear that Custom Time is one of their April Fool’s day jokes.

If in any doubt on the validity of this feature read the user testimonials: “I used to be an honest person; but now I don’t have to be. It’s just so much easier this way. I’ve gained a lot of productivity by not having to think about doing the ‘right’ thing.” Todd J., Investment Banker. and Robby S. “I just got two tickets to Radiohead by being the ‘first’ to respond to a co-worker’s ‘first-come, first-serve’ email. Someone else had already won them, but I told everyone to check their inboxes again. Everyone sort of knows I used Custom Time on this one, but I’m denying it.”

Looking for more Google April Fools jokes I didn’t have to look far. On their home page is a link to become a “Virgle Pioneer”.

Virgle Pioneer is an open invitation from Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Virgin founder Richard Branson to join Project Virgle: the first permanent human colony on Mars. If you are brave enough to click the ‘Apply to be a Virgile pioneer’ link you are redirected to a questionnaire which is an application form to join the program. It features goofy questions such as:

“If I was unexpectedly confronted with the emergence of a bewilderingly alien and frighteningly advanced Martian life form which appeared bent on killing me if I failed to quickly and effectively communicate my peaceful intentions and potential value to its civilization, I would: a) Die. b) Whip out my handy universal transcorder and start schmoozing my ass off. c) Well, given that there’s no such thing as a transcorder that works for a Martian language that we haven’t even heard yet, I guess I’d just do my best to seem non-threatening while communicating my peaceful intentions with subtly universal hand gestures, or d) Run straight toward the Martian while screaming wildly and brandishing whatever weapon happens to be handy.” At the end of questionnaire one is invited to submit a 30-second video explaining why you want to live on Mars and yes people did submit videos.

Our company had one too. Our Australian office announced that they would be releasing a new banner technology “TrustBanners” together with Prof. Olaf Prilo, (anagram anyone?!), head researcher at the NSW Mind and Brain Institute . The banners were pitched as the result of a revolutionary method of gaining consumer trust through high frequency (90fps) banner adverts (i.e flashing red and white dots superimposed on an ad) which stimulate specific regions of the visual cortex (Visual area V5/MT) producing instant effects on consumers.

It didn’t take long to figure this one out as one of our employees Dennis Hall, pointed out: “How is this achieving 90fps on my monitor that’s refreshing at 60hz? Maybe that’s why I’m not being influenced…”

And finally digg changed it’s post-digg an article count to a random mathematical symbol. Not surprisingly the blogpost announcing the host is currently the most popular item with 21,000 + diggs

Happy April Fool’s Day