April Fool

Four 'April Fool' stories April 2013 - April 2016

Google pulls Gmail ‘mic drop’ feature after acknowledging prank caused embarrassment

Ben Lovejoy Apr 1 2016 - 3:52 am PT

mic-drop

Google has acknowledged that one of its April Fools jokes backfired when it started causing real embarrassment to some Gmail users. It has now pulled the joke feature.

Google added a ‘send + mic drop’ button last night, that added a GIF of a Minion dropping a microphone to an email reply, before archiving the thread. It was intended as a fun way for users to express their desire to exit an email conversation, but the company made one schoolboy UI error: it put the joke button right where the usual ‘send and archive’ one sits …

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Roundup: Top April Fools’ products gags from Google, Samsung, and more [Updated]

Abner Li Mar 31 2016 - 4:45 pm PT

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Nobody loves April Fools’ more than the technology industry. But out of all the companies, Google spends the most time cranking out day-long features, elaborate product videos, and jokey press releases. We’ll be covering the best pranks in our updating roundup. Be sure to leave a comment if you come across a particularly funny one.

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Google+ now shows view counts on profiles and pages

Benjamin Mayo Mar 31 2014 - 1:48 pm PT

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A new Google+ addition, rolled out (confusingly) in the midst of April Fool’s season, makes view counts optionally visible on your profile. Both profiles and pages can now show the number of times content on your Google+ has been viewed. The view count applies to all content, totalling the number of views across your profile, posts and photos.

The stat can be optionally hidden. To change the visibility, go to your Google+ settings (plus.google.com/settings) and toggle the checkbox labelled ‘Show how many times your profile and content have been viewed’.

Bing vs. Google: Competition gets turned up on April Fool’s Day (Video)

Élyse Betters Apr 1 2013 - 10:10 am PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Zr4JwPb99qU]

While Google has played several light-hearted April Fool’s jokes today, Microsoft’s search engine Bing took things to the next level by pretending to be Google.

To see the somewhat harsh joke, go to Bing’s website and then search for “Google.” A Google-like search page will appear with the header “Bing.” The fake search page features floating squares that criticize Google, but it most notably changed Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button to “I’m Feeling Confused” with link to a blog post that fully explains the joke.

According to Bing.com’s blog:

So today we’re running a special test, where if you visit bing.com and enter a certain telltale query, you’ll get something a little more bland. We decided to go back to basics, to the dawn of the Internet, to reimagine Bing with more of a 1997, dial-up sensibility in mind. We may see some uptick in our numbers based on this test, but the main goal here is just to learn more about how our world would look if we hadn’t evolved.

So, Microsoft has basically slammed Google’s look and deemed it dated. Yeah. Way to keep things light, Redmond. Don’t worry, though: Google has lashed back.

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