The Best Google April Fools Day Pranks

This is the transcript for our new video. (Links at the bottom)

Hi. Happy April Fool’s. Hope you haven’t been hit too hard by pranks as yet today, although I’m sure there’ll be a few more to come. Today, that’s going to be the topic of my video. I’m going to look at something that Google does really well, and that’s April Fool’s jokes. Sometimes it feels like they’ve got a whole team there dedicated to providing them. Maybe they do. They’ve done hundreds over the years, and there are some really great ones out there. So it was really difficult to come up with this list. But I’ve picked five that I found entertaining at the time or since. I hope you enjoy them too.

Introducing Google PigeonRank. It’s 2002 and Google have just announced how they rank web pages. Lo and behold, it’s pigeons. Every time a user searches a query it’s sent into a coop of pigeons where they calculate complex formulas to work out which pages should be ranked. There’s all sorts of information still available out there, because this page is still up live, and it’s well worth checking out. It includes things like wingspan versus beak speed and pigeon efficiency. It’s well worth going and having a look. You’ll enjoy it.

So 2005 sees the launch of Google Gulp, a smart drink launched to help you be more efficient when you search by making you less tired and more intelligent. Really clever idea. Obviously makes no sense, but the page is still out there, and it’s well worth going to have a look. Another really good example of a good Google April Fool’s.

Have you struggled to meet the love of your life? Well, on April 1, 2006, Google Romance was introduced, Google’s online dating platform that allowed couples to go out on all expenses paid dates and enjoy contextually relevant advertising throughout the night. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

The year’s 2007 and technology is taking over. Email is the method of communication now. We don’t talk. We don’t write. Are you fed up with technology taking over your life? Do you miss the old days of filing cabinets and archiving paper records? Introducing Gmail Paper. This is an awesome button that was added to your Gmail that allowed you to file away your emails and, lo and behold, your emails arrived in a cardboard box to your door. Of course they didn’t. This was an April Fool’s joke, but another great idea and an example of Google showing its wit.

This one is my personal favourite. 2014 saw the introduction of Google AdBirds, a powerful new offline platform that you could advertise through Google. You could select one of six birds from a pigeon that was better at targeting busy city centres to an owl that was better to target night time users. Then, you could customise the ad text from what appeared on the head to the beak to the wings and even the tail feather. Then, you set your geographical targeting where you want this bird to fly and you set it free, and it goes out and spreads your message out there.

That’s just a few of my favourite Google April Fool’s jokes. You can read a few more of them in the link below. Well worth going to have a look. Hopefully, we’ll see a few more today from them because they’re pretty damn good at it. I expect there’ll be a whole host of things happening throughout the day, so keep an eye out for that.

Happy April Fool’s. Enjoy the rest of your day.

2002 – Google Pigeon Rank: http://ift.tt/1qWf3v9

2005 – Google Gulp: http://ift.tt/1hcnMTi

2006 – Google Romance: http://ift.tt/1NIvMJT

2007 – Gmail Paper: http://ift.tt/1BJOPei

2014 – Google AdBirds: http://ift.tt/1Dta0GX

Link to all Google April Fools: http://ift.tt/1IiyCoH;

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