The web search engine company Google is justly famous for their April Fools Pranks. The pranks are almost always fantastic applications that mock Google's reputation for being all-powerful.
Fast Facts:
- Date: April 1
- Past Google April Fools' Hoaxes:
- Google MentalPlex
- Google Pigeon Rank
- Google Copernicus Center
- Google Gulp
- Google Romance
Google Pranks 2008
In 2008 Google created 15 different prank apps, launched in different countries as the day progressed. The first Google prank for 2008 was called "Gday". Gday (launched in Australia) was supposed to let searchers look one day into the future to find articles, websites, and blog posts one day before they are actually created. n Japan, the "Dajar" app was for organizing the world's laughter. While in Korea, the "Google Dialect Translation" in would translate regional dialects of Korean to "standard" Korean.
Google Hoax History
The very first Google April Fool prank was in 2000. Called MentalPlex, it was reported to be an accelerated search technology, which scanned your brainwave activity to discover what website you were trying to get at. Others included Pigeon Rank, which revealed that Google ranks its page using the power of pecking pigeons and G.C.H.E.E.S.E., which advertised for job openings on the moon.Business Insider: Google's April Fools' Gags: A History (GOOG) (March 31, 2009)
After all this creative levity, you would think that Google would know better than to launch a product on or about April 1st, but in 2004, when GMail was announced, consumers were unsure if Google's version of email was real or simply another hoax.
