April Fools' stuff...

GOOGLE HOAXES 2008

Google has a tradition of perpetrating April Fool's Day hoaxes, which generally have an intellectual sense of humor.

From Wiki:

In Gmail, Google featured information for an update called "Gmail Custom Time"; a feature that would allow its users to send emails back in time. While composing a message, a button labeled "Set Custom Time" would allow one to send the message a specific interval in the past, as well as choose if the message appeared as "read" or "unread". None of the features appear in the service itself, but rather in a description of the update found here: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html.

Virgle

Google announces a joint project with the Virgin Group that aims to establish a permanent human settlement onMars (http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html). This operation has been named Project Virgle. it also includes videos of Richard Branson as well as Larry Page & Sergey Brin (The Founders of Google) on YouTube, talking about Virgle.^[1]

Dajare

Google launches Dajare in Japan (google.co.jp), with the mission of "organizing the world’s laughter." ^[2]

gDay

Google announces gDay in Australia (http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/gday/press.html), a new beta search technology that will search web pages 24 hours before they are created.

Google Dialect Translation

Google announces Google 사투리 번역 (Google dialect translation) for translating regional dialects of Korean to and from Standard Korean.^[3]

Gmail Custom Time

Around 11:00 p.m. EST March 31, 2008, on the newer and older version of Gmail, but not in the basic HTML version, in the upper right corner, next to Settings, a link appeared labeled, "New! Gmail Custom Time". The link led to a 404 error before April 1st CST.^[4] [5] - It now leads to their latest hoax, Gmail Custom Time --> [2]. The page claimed a new Gmail feature had been added that would allow people to date stamp their emails in the past, allowing for all sorts of mischief. Users would be limited to 10 Custom Times a year to minimize the number of fraudulent emails. Clicking any of the three links at the bottom of the page brought the user to a page indicating that Gmail Custom time was, in fact, their April Fools prank for 2008.^[6]

YouTube Rickroll

YouTube users were Rickrolled when all of the featured videos on the main page were linked to a video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up".^[7]

Google Calendar is Feeling Lucky

Google added the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button to its calendar feature. When you tried to create a new event, you were given the regular option of entering the correct details and hitting "Create Event," and also the new option of "I'm Feeling Lucky" which would set you up with an evening date with, among others, Matt Damon, Eric Cartman, or Angelina Jolie.

Google Wake Up Kit

Google launched their "Wake Up Kit" as a calendar notification option. The option sends a series of increasingly aggressive alerts, starting with an SMS message to your cellphone, and ending with a bucket of water dumped into your bed, which would then flip over, tossing you out (all using apparently free equipment).

Google Docs

A little easter egg was added, where a user can click the file menu and directly under new document is "New Airplane" which immediately opens a copy of a Google branded paper airplane.