Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Google April Fools Pranks (comprehensive list?)

Here are all of the April Fools day pranks by Google, listed generally in order of how funny I think they are. If you can find more, send 'em over!

www.Google.com - The introduction of Cadie.
A treatise on the nature and philosophical implications of Artificial Inetelligence. Also sets the stage for the rest of the jokes.
Favorite Quotes:
"Earlier today, for instance, CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage"
."...when, in early 2007, a tight-knit, vaguely feared quantum computing group here at Google extended computers with quantum bits of Einstein-Bose condensate, polynomially speeding up our machines' data-processing ability."
"CADIE now is, in essence, just another Google employee, albeit a particularly prized one."

gMail - Autopilot
Hilarious.


Blogger - Cadie's Homepage
quite tasteful. This is what happens when you scan Google's index. You realize just how many MySpace pages there actually are out there.

YouTube - The "New Viewing Experience"
Also, all Spotlight Videos are about "upside down things" and when clicked into, everything on the page is in it's correct spot but flipped upside down.
Note that Cadie also has her own YouTube channel.
Probably slightly less frustrating then last years joke, where every featured video got you Rick Rolled. Worth noting: most of the video comments seem to include "boobs"

Google Images - Cadie's Preferences
Clever use of size and content/format options

Google Docs - Docs on Demand
Funny, but getting less so at this point. I like the presentations section the best.

Google Chrome (the Google Browser) - Chrome 3D
Now with Printable Glasses! (link will download glasses in a PDF)

Google Maps - Caddie's Mapplet
Some of the descriptions are mildly amusing (click on pandas to view)

Google Earth - Cadie Sub
m'eh.

Google Reader - None? Really? I'm surprised.

All in all, I thought it was interesesting to try linking all of the pranks together, but in the end, I think I've enjoyed the individual jokes more. I think they tend to get wackier when they don't have to stretch to fit within a narrative. That said, they pranked more products this year than ever, so kudos in the end. Well played Google, please don't stop this ritual, or let it get stale.

1 comment:

  1. Found another one: Google Analytics
    http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/04/cadies-google-analytics-reports.html

    ReplyDelete