15 Google April Fool's Day Jokes and Pranks

Google Motion was a 2011 prank that spoofed the X-Box Kinect and other motion-controlled devices. Google claimed you could use the webcam on your computer and a series of sillier and sillier full body motions to send Gmail or edit Google Docs.

YouTube 1911 was part of Google's 2011 prank portfolio, as YouTube celebrated their "100th birthday." By clicking on the YouTube 1911 logo, users could see videos transformed into sepia-toned silent movies, complete with scratches and a piano soundtrack. The caption under the videos informs users that 1911 was "when videos were uploaded by horse-drawn carriage," and a special gag reel featured the top five viral videos of 1911, which poked fun at 2011 memes like "keyboard cat" and "Failblog."

Google offered to build an ultra-high speed broadband network in one or more lucky cities. They accepted applications from city officials until March 26, 2010, and they encouraged cities to post videos or create Facebook pages in order to show community support for the effort. One or two cities went a little crazy with the idea, including the capital of my home state, Topeka. Topeka renamed themselves "Google, Kansas" for the month of March.

Google's 2010 April Fool's Day joke was to return the favor and change Google's name to Topeka, Inc. Outside of April Fool's, they did not choose Topeka as the location of their ultra high speed network. That honor went to nearby Kansas City.

Google UK put up a spoof video claiming to have created an app that translates animal noises into English. They also placed the app in the Android Market. Searches for "Translate for Animals" actually lead to an app by that name. The app offers animal choices and displays the microphone symbol. The "translations" are random quotes. As of early 2011, you can still download the app.

For 2010, YouTube created TEXTp, a "text only" mode, which they claimed saved a dollar per second in bandwidth costs and improved literacy. Videos in TEXTp mode display a filter that makes it look like they are animated ASCII art.

By analyzing trends in social networks, for example, she created a blog and YouTube channel to proclaim her love of pandas. She determined this love and the look of her blog by analyzing user trends.

Google claimed that CADIE was now a regular Google employee and already working on a 20% project.

There's also a special version of Chrome with 3D. Every time you press the 3D button, it gives the graphics on the page a red/blue shadow. Google also provided a PDF of 3D glasses you can print out for "viewing" the 3D effect.

Gmail itself was released on April Fool's Day, and one gig of expanded storage space was also announced on April Fool's Day, causing some speculation that the announcement itself was a joke.