14 DAY TRIAL // April Fools’ is the day the internet is flooded with pranks, jokes and false information, ranging from the smart and subtle to the obvious and boring. You can always rely on Google to put out a long list of April Fools’ jokes, though not all of them are going to be funny.
This year, Google had a nice crop, there were no great ones like the human autocorrectors prank of a few years ago, but the YouTube prank seems to have been rather effective, judging by how many people fell for it.
Google Nose is also rather elaborate, Google put quite a lot of work in its latest fake search tool which enables users to search for and discover smells.
Gmail played it safe this year with Gmail Blue, though the actors in the video make the most out of the material.
Google Maps probably had the most interesting joke, in that it is there is actually treasure hidden in Google Maps. Several clues to its locations have been discovered so far, you can keep track of the progress on Google Maps' Google+ page or try your hand at discovering the treasure yourself.
Google Fiber had a pretty funny prank with the new fiber-to-the-pole gigabit connections, for united neighborhoods.
Finally, the Google Wallet Mobile ATM is pretty funny even if it's a rather on the nose take on competitor Square.
Elsewhere in Google Land, Google Australia unveiled the SCHMICK (Simple Complete House Makeover Internet Conversion Kit), a home improvement kit for those on a small or nonexistent budget.
Google+ debuted the emoticon for photos, making it much easier for alien and robots to understand the emotion portrayed by the humans in photos.
The Google Analytics team had a surprise for users, a new tool for tracking visitors from the International Space Station. Judging by how much time Canadian astronaut and current Commander of the ISS Chris Hadfield spends online, the tool may actually prove useful.