Sunday 1 April 2012

April Fools

As always sites all over the internet are vying with each other to come up with the best April Fool's jokes.

Disappointingly I have received no April Fool emails - which given the amount of bulk mail I receive in my e-mail is an achievement. I can only put it down to it falling on a Sunday.

Here are a few of the most amusing and bizarre that I've stumbled over so far today.
Daily Mirror goes with the unlikely launch of Titanic Two. The give-away (should you really need one) that the story is a hoax is the section "The only new technology on the new version of the Titanic is a Search Engine Optimiser, a device that can instantaneously geo-locate key celebrities should Titanic Two encounter any problems at sea."


The Independent goes for a hose-pipe amnesty. Hand in your hosepipes in advance of the upcoming hosepipe ban.


The Daily Mail chooses a story on an antidote for the 'pasty tax' which is a 'bubbly tax'. Cleverly this story links into climate change - just to really incense readers.


Reddit has come up with a twist on Facebook's Timeline which goes back to pre-history. Warning you might waste an hour or two playing with this one.


Firebox can always be relied on to offer up some unlikely purchases. They'll let you in on the joke pretty quickly if you try and buy one.


Some smaller sites are even getting in on the game. Local site Greenwich.co.uk notes a spelling blunder gives Greenwich an extra 'e'. They may have changed their mast-head but they haven't changed their web-address!


AdBlock for Chrome has decided to replace ads with cats. Some very cute cats on the page. Not really an original idea though as there is already the add-on for Firefox Kitten Block.


Of course the masters of the on-line prank are Google. They serve up a veritable feast of pranks - here are a few of my favourites:

Google suggest that the latest use for their self-driving car might be NASCAR. The very comprehensive page takes you through the whole pitch, including other uses for the technology.

Google China has taken it's search engine 'under the sea'. 


The Really Advanced Search Engine gives a whole host of advanced features. This includes 'rhyming slang' and the option to narrow your search results by 'content that is true'.



I also quite like the idea of Click-to-Teleport - do note that it is only in beta!


And last but not least, Google Nigeria - search for your inheritance by bank account. If you do type in some numbers you'll just get a standard search engine return.


Here are some April Fools from years past:

And yes, I know it is all over in the UK now - but it has taken nearly two hours to write this post!