April Fools' Day on the Internet

[mandy]

Given the timing and the fact that Yahoo Mail and Hotmail then offered less than 10MB of free space, most people laughed off the Google news as a funny April Fools' joke.

Of course, we know now that the Gmail gambit was for real. But in the Internet age, April 1 has become a day when dozens upon dozens of good-natured online hoaxes are perpetrated each year. Thus, people would be wise to smell-test just about everything that pops into their browser on and around April Fools' Day...

Smell-tests aside, there are always those people who fall for April Fools' Internet pranks, even those who should know better.

A case in point was 2003's iLoo from Microsoft, purportedly an Internet outhouse replete with a flat-screen plasma display, broadband access and a wireless keyboard...

full article: http://news.com.com/April+Fools+Day+is+c...=nefd.lede

[bargainbloodhound]

A case in point was 2003's iLoo from Microsoft, purportedly an Internet outhouse replete with a flat-screen plasma display, broadband access and a wireless keyboard...

That is just wrong!  :blinkie: I'm glad this site isn't playing any April Fools Jokes! 

[Kristijntje]

related articles:

China buys Google

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/01/...ys_google/

Waggle-Gegy Acquires TulipTools, announces plans to beat Ebay-Enron w/new script

http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...220.0.html

[regic]

[quote author=Kristijntje link=topic=3214.msg11719#msg11719 date=1143913360]
related articles:

China buys Google

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/01/...ys_google/

Waggle-Gegy Acquires TulipTools, announces plans to beat Ebay-Enron w/new script

http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...220.0.html
[/quote]

Their article beats ours 

[regic]

Another one:

Microsoft Buys OpenOffice.org!

For an undisclosed sum reputed to be in the billions, Microsoft's Bill Gates has personally bought the leading open-source desktop project. Saying he "was sick and tired of open-source eating away at his profits," the world's richest man decided to put an end to the nuisance and simply buy OpenOffice.org. It will form part of a growing list of Microsoft acquisitions, including several erstwhile competitors, a considerable number of prominent politicians, and a few small governments.

The initially stunned OpenOffice.org community--a happy-go-lucky international band numbering in the hundreds of thousands--later turned to champagne to celebrate their newfound wealth. "Bless Bill!" one happy Torontonian exclaimed, bubbly in hand. "With all this money, I can beat Mark's time in orbit!"

Gates has assured all current OpenOffice.org users that their future migration path to Microsoft Office is guaranteed thanks to OpenOffice.org's faultless support of MS Office files formats. Users can further rest assured that the full functionality currently provided by OpenOffice.org 2.0 will be available in MS-Office 2020 - or possibly 2030.

Full Press Release

[regic]

Another:

Today Lucasfilm announced the licensing of a new line of "Adult" Star Wars novels.

"While the movies were still an ongoing project, it was important to portray all aspects of the Star Wars universe as wholesome family entertainment," said Lucasfilm spokesmen Dirk Merdespieler. "However, now that the cycle of films is done, we can finally broaden the Star Wars franchise into marketing niches we'd heretofore avoided, and adult entertainment is at the top of our list."

full article: http://locusmag.com/2006/Features/0401_A..._Wars.html

[regic]

Another:

Pin All Your Romantic Hopes on Google

When you think about it, love is just another search problem. And we’ve thought about it. A lot. Google Romance™ is our solution.

Google Romance is a place where you can post all types of romantic information and, using our Soulmate Search™, get back search results that could, in theory, include the love of your life. Then we'll send you both on a Contextual DateTM, which we'll pay for while delivering to you relevant ads that we and our advertising partners think will help produce the dating results you're looking for.

With Google Romance, you can:

    * Upload your profile – tell the world who you are, or, more to the point, who you’d like to think you are, or, even more to the point, who you want others to think you are.
    * Search for love in all (or at least a statistically significant majority of) the right places with Soulmate Search, our eerily effective psychographic matchmaking software.
    * Endure, via our Contextual Dating option, thematically appropriate multimedia advertising throughout the entirety of your free date.

http://www.google.com/romance/

[dnc_ont]

"advertising partners think will help produce the dating results you're looking for."
"Endure, via our Contextual Dating option, thematically appropriate multimedia advertising throughout the entirety of your free date."

Woo hoo, a date that I get to watch tons of free porn.  Just what I always wanted!!  Thanks Google!

[rose]

I like the new Google Maps view of Taiwan

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/01/...an_map.jpg

[MEnTALgoddess]

This year's Google prank is weak compared to the Google lunar jobs and PigeonRank pages.