So what about this year’s April Fools’ Day antics? Let’s have a look.
Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge
Google has been known to pull a prank or two -- in recent years more like a dozen -- every April since 2000, with the effort getting seemingly more involved and epic in scope each year. In 2013 alone, Google announced YouTube was shutting down for 10 years to pick a "winning video," debuted a treasure hunt mode for Google Maps, announced a beta launch of a smell-searching product called Google Nose, and released a fake Gmail update that was said to make the product better by making it the color blue.
It was a little past 12 pm ET today (March 31), when the Google Maps team posted its April Fools’ Day gag — the “Pokémon Challenge,” a game/adventure where Pokémon masters are tasked with using Google Maps to find game characters out in the wild. Winners will (facetiously) have a chance to become Google employees.
As with many of Google’s April 1st gags, this one’s kinda “real” in the sense that you can open up your Google Maps app (iPhone or Android), tap the search bar and then touch the new “Press start” button (just as seen in the video below). When my daughter, the family’s Pokémon expert, did that on my iPhone, we were immediately shown a map of Mountain View (Calif.) where a Bulbasaur and Dragonite were hanging out somewhere near the Google campus.
Google Japan: The Magic Hand
April Fools’ jokes are a worldwide thing with Google. Via the unofficial Google Operating System blog comes a joke called “The Magic Hand.” It’s a big hand device that operates your smartphone for you.
The Magic Hand can be attached to any keyboard, with right and left handed versions, a cat's paw and even a back scratcher, the video claims. The full post by the Google Japan team is here and you can see the Magic Hand in action below.
Gmail Shelfies
For another April Fools' prank, Google is jumping on the selfie bandwagon by letting users upload their self-portraits to use as Gmail inbox themes.
The company is also letting users share these themes with one another. They're shareable selfies, or as Google calls them: "shelfies".
And as a joke, Google is taking credit for starting the whole selfie trend.
"As the pioneering platform for selfies, Gmail is committed to being at the forefront of innovation in the selfie space," the company says in a satirical blog post. "And we think it's a tragedy that your handsome hair, luscious lashes and beautiful brows have been trapped in your own inbox. Until now, that is."
Users can choose to upload their own shelfie themes, send them to their friends or use the top trending shelfies.
Nest: Total Temperature Control
Nest, one of Google’s newest acquisitions, is even in the April Fools’ Day game. Their gag is about a partnership with Virgin Atlantic airlines on a feature called “Total Temperature Control.” Every seat on Virgin’s jets gets its own Nest device to let passengers set their own temperature preferences as they fly. (This would actually be potentially cool if it were real.)
Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson even stars in the parody video.
Waze Launches WazeDates
This one is from Waze, a crowd-sourced map and traffic app that Google recently acquired. Waze says that it has acquired SingleSpotter, a service that locates and tracks singles in an area, and is now launching WazeDates. "WazeDates, powered by SingleSpotter, alerts drivers to other likely singles on the road nearby. Wazers can adjust preferences to search for drivers based on age, s#x, orientation and more. Once a desirable driver is found, users simply invite them to a destination by sharing their ride, or use Map Chat to say hello," the Waze blog informs.
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Google+ Auto-Awesome Photobombs
Just after midnight, the Google+ team announced its joke: Auto-Awesome Photobombs. But not just any photobombs — this is celebrity photobombs. For starters, if you upload a photo to Google+, Google might insert an image of David Hasselhoff, like shown in this Google example:
Google “AdBirds”
Google strikes again in 2014 with a hilarious April Fool's prank.
Investigating the Adbirds notification a little further, we quickly found you can choose your own bird and "let it fly" !
‘Top planets and moons’ in AdSense
If you run a business on the Web, it’s important to know where your customers are coming from right? With its latest “update” to AdSense, the company is now teasing a new “top planets and moons” report.
So sure, the majority of your visitors are probably coming from Earth. But what about Mars and the Moon? Well, now you know.
Google Play Signature Edition
Google Play Signature Edition adds support for a new way to distribute Android apps. "With Signature Edition, you can bring back the physical connection to your users. App delivery is completed via USB drives shipped in carefully crafted boxes, each proudly bearing your signature. This not only gives your users the very latest version of your app, but also adds a personal touch that is so often missing in our modern digital age."
Keep adding more to this post and discover them!!!:hello
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