In case you hadn’t realized, today is April 1, and that means April Fool’s Day. In the past that might mean a practical joke from from someone at the office or a friend, but these days, big companies, particularly tech and social media sites, are pulling out all the stops to make your April Fool’s Day an hilarious one. Let’s check out some of the best tricks so far:
YouTube
In what is arguably the best prank so far, YouTube, after 8 amazing years, announces that as of midnight the contest to find the best video in the world is over, and they will no longer be accepting submissions. Viewers are encouraged to watch as many videos as they can now, before every video is deleted from the site.
The site will go back online 2023 featuring the winner of YouTube, and nothing else.
Google Nose
Google has announced a new product that will revolutionize how we search for and find the information we’re looking for. Google Nose.
In an effort to monetize their platform beyond traditional advertising revenue, Twitter announced today that they are shifting to a two-tiered service. Twttr is the new free service that everyone can use, but you can only use consonants. If you want to use vowels in your tweets, you will need to upgrade to the new $5/month plan for the full Twitter experience. According to their statement, “We’re doing this because we believe that by eliminating vowels, we’ll encourage a more efficient and “dense” form of communication.”
Y will always be free, as well as vowels in shortened links, and the length of the tweet is being extended by one character, to 141. Enjoy.
https://discover.twitter.com/twttr/ will help convert those tweets to vowel-less tweets.
HubSpot
HubSpot is a marketing platform and service that helps businesses combine blogging and great content with social sharing, lead generation and analytics. Today, they announced an entirely new product that will take marketing your business to whole new levels. It’s called SprocketVision. Watch the video:
Google Maps
Even Google Maps is getting into the spirit of things by offering users a Treasure Map option.
Honorable Mention
Honorable mention this year goes to +Rand Wilson for breaking the news that Google’s RSS Reader will be integrated into Google+, as previously suggested by +Jesse Wojdylo.
What are some of the great April Fool’s Jokes you’ve seen so far today?
Image courtesy of Sean MacEntee, Flickr.