Top Ten Online April Fools Jokes
After scouring cyberspace for the funniest April Fools Jokes, we compile our list of favourite pranks that have hit the Internet.
Number 10Joke: Translate for Animals Application
Company: Google UK
Year: 2010
Search engine giant Google have a prolific history of playing Aprils Fools Jokes, and 2010 was no exception, with the announcement of their new application that translates the noises of many animals into English. Its simple you see, all you need to do is record the animal noise which is then transmitted from your phone to the Google servers which then analyse the “neural biological acoustics” of the noise and compares it to the “millions of sounds in their animal linguistic database” to produce the human translation. Easy right?
Of course it wasn’t real, but it still fooled many who fruitlessly held their phones up to their disinclined pets in the hope of finally knowing what was on their minds. Whilst the application did exist and was fully downloadable, after recording it would then just produce a completely random quote. Good one, Google.
Number 9
Joke: Your IP has been recorded
Company: CollegeHumor.com
Year: 2010
Joke site CollegeHumour.com played an amusing joke on its own visitors in 2010. Instead of the usual CollegeHumor.com homepage, visitors were presented with a warning from the “US Department of Information” when visiting the site. The warning claimed that the visitors IP address had been recorded because the site was currently under investigation for “harboring un-American sentiment” and threatened the vistitor with the possbility of being subpeoned because of their interest in the site.
Of course it was an April Fools joke and the US Department of Information does not even exist.
Number 8
Joke: Project Dawnstar
Company: Expedia.com
Year: 2009
Ever wanted to go to Mars? You could, according to this 2009 April Fools prank orchestrated by Expedia.com who launched microsites asserting that flights to Mars would begin soon. Included on the sites were details about hotels on the red planet, and let the user pick their leaving point and spacecraft type. The prank got most coverage on social networking sites and thousands of users went through the booking wizard to book their flights to Mars, but alas, shortly thereafter Expedia.com announced the whole thing as a rather obvious April Fools prank.
Number 7
Joke: CADIE and 3D Chrome
Company: Google
Year: 2009
Its Google again, this time with their latest “project” CADIE, which stands for “Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity”. Google claimed CADIE was an artificial intelligence being who now worked for Google. CADIE would make the Internet a faster place by “improving the speed and accuracy of memory retrieval” and eliminate “tip of the tongue syndrome” and other ridiculous sounding problems. Also included was the claim that she powered a 3D web browser, for the ultimate three dimensional online experiences. Don’t have your own red/blue 3D glasses? Its okay, Google provide a printable version! Equipped with her own site decorated with pandas and rainbows, CADIE enjoyed modest popularity until she was “outed” by Google as pure fiction.
Number 6
Joke: Ben&Jerrys Virtual Ice Cream
Company: Ben & Jerrys
Year: 2010
Ever wanted to taste the sweet Phish food taste without having to hike to the local supermarket? Now you can, Ben & Jerrys claim, by licking your computer screen. Hmm maybe not we think. Honestly, we don’t want to know how many people ended up tasting nothing more than their LCD screens with this prank.
Number 5
Joke: Google’s MentalPlex
Company: Google
Year: 2000
Back to Google for the third time with one of their first April Fools jokes back in 2000, the Google MentalPlex. The MentalPlex claimed to read the mind of its users thus eliminating the need of actually typing in a search query. Once the users clicked on the MentalPlex circle they were led to an error message telling them that there was a “multiple stream error” and the user should silence the other voices inside their heads. Equipped with its own FAQ page, this prank was well designed and thought out by Google, though we’re not sure how many people would admit to falling for this one.
Number 4
Joke: Protection by Distraction
Company: Sophos
Year: 2010
Keeping your computer secure from hackers is obviously a high priority on most online users minds, and security company Sophos released their creative and resourceful solution in 2010 with “Protection by Distraction” where Sophos would sidetrack potential hackers who have penetrated a computer system with distracting files. After extensive research, Sophos announced that the most effective type of file to distract hackers is …. trashy erotica. That’s right folks, the way to keep your credit card information secure is to plant trashy literature in your computer to sidetrack the hackers. Sophos even allowed its users to suggest or write certain material which they can then submit to them. Recommended keywords included “backdoor”, “leakage prevention”, “deep packet inspection” and “slot”.
Okay, you guessed it. The “Protection by Distraction” method was just a joke created by the brilliant minds at Sophos. Back to more orthodox methods then, we guess.
Number 3
Joke: Bieber or Die
Company: FunnyorDie.com
Year: 2010
This one goes on the list because of the complete commitment the humour site FunnyorDie.com gave to the prank by fully redesigning their website in an attempt to dupe members into thinking it had been bought out by pint sized pop singer Justin Bieber, even renaming the site BieberorDie.com. The site was supposedly now owned by the singer who had complete control over the site content. Scary we know. Luckily for the site members, and indeed the whole Internet community in general, the site was actually not bought out by Justin, rather a frankly disturbing prank. Collective sigh of relief…. there we go.
Number 2
Joke: Google is now Topeka
Company: Google
Year: 2010
Okay, one more trip to the Google offices. Did anyone here about the mayor of Topeka in Kansas announcing to the world he was now changing the name of his town to Google, Kansas? Well in a return gesture, April 1st 2010 was the date that Google announced it was going to change its own name to Topeka. They updated the site title and even made signposts to their offices to reflect the change. Unfortunately for the town formerly known as Topeka, the change was brief before Google admitted the prank and returned to good old Google.
Number 1
Joke: Plenta & Micra Cup Sizes
Company: Starbucks
Year: 2010
When it comes to duping thousands, this Starbucks prank really did the trick. In 2010 the coffee chain announced the arrival of two new sizes, the Plenta and Micra sizes. The Plenta being a whopping 128 fl oz and the Micra being a nominal 2 fl oz. The prank was equipped with its own web page full of amusing photos showing the two comical size of cups. To add to the audacity of the hoax, Starbucks announced that due to the size of the Plenta cup, customers should not dispose of this colossal cardboard container, rather use its size for various other tasks including popcorn receptacle, rain hat or yoga block. You can see the amusing hoax web page here.
Also have a read of our Top Ten Spooky Chain Emails
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