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April 1st is April Fools Day. This is a day dedicated to pranking your friends and co-workers. However since the beginning of the web this holiday has been marked with numerous hoaxes of the digital flavor. This year is no different, companies like Google commemorated the day with several fake news releases.
My favorite this year is Virgle an alleged collaboration between Google and Virgin to start a human colony on mars. The website of the project looks completely legitimate and complete with application form for interested colonists, FAQ and other information. Prospective applicants can get their common questions answered such as "How are you planning to reach Mars?" and "Where will you build the settlement?". This may be an April Fools hoax right now, but knowing ambitions and talents of Richard Branson and the Goolge crew this may become a reality one day.
Another fake product released by Google that i thought was pretty funny is Gmail Custom Time. This new option in Gmail allows sender to make a custom time stamp on the email allowing messages to look like they were send in the past. Unfortunately, there are some limitations according to the press release: "You'll only be able to send email back until April 1, 2004, the day we launched Gmail. If we were to let you send an email from Gmail before Gmail existed, well, that would be like hanging out with your parents before you were born -- crazy talk."
Google was not the only company to jump on the April Fools wagon. Online Dating Dating Industry Journal released news that eHarmony Founder Finds Love on Match.com.
Big April Fools joke this year that has been common to many different websites is referred to as"Rick Rolling". To Rick Roll someone is to trick them into clicking a link that takes them to a cheesy music video of a song by Rick Astley.
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