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April Fools' Day: The Most Horrible Time of the Year

by Terrence O'Brien on April 1, 2011 at 11:50 AM

Google Motion
Sadly, April Fools' Day has arrived. Every year on this day, tech companies across the country and the globe spend countless man hours and millions of dollars playing pranks on hapless consumers and frustrated tech journalists. In the past, we've been treated to such delightful jokes as Gmail Paper and every link on YouTube leading to a rickroll. Even NASA got in on the action by announcing it had found water on Mars in 2005, posting a Photoshopped image of a glass of water on the Red Planet. And today the Internet rolled out the prank parade again, trying to outdo last year's shenanigans. Here's a few from around the Web, including a torrent of tomfoolery from Google.

Google Motion
Apparently the Gmail and Google Docs teams couldn't be bothered to think of different jokes, so we get Gmail Motion and Google Docs Motion, which allow you to control the Web apps with a series of Semaphore-like gestures, minus the flags.

Flugelhorn Feline

100 Years of YouTube
Ever wonder what viral cat videos would have looked like in 1911? Neither have we, but YouTube doesn't really care what we want.

Voice-alyzer

Voice-alyzer
Drunk dialing is embarrassing. Get it?

Google Autocompleter Job Posting
How does Google know what you're trying to search for? Apparently it hires people to watch as you type and suggest searches. How silly.

Hulu 1996

Hulu
Ok, maybe this isn't that bad. Hulu goes all '90s on us with 256-color images, dial-up sound effects, and highlights from 'The X-Files' and... 'The Dana Carvey Show'? OK, we take it back. This is terrible.

Apple Store Playset

ThinkGeek
The nerdy outlet is loaded with gag products today. Some of last year's jokes ended up as real products; let's hope this Apple Store Playset makes that transition.

Comic Sans Pro

Comic Sans Pro
Wait... this is a joke, right?

Tags: april fools, April Fools Day, AprilFools, AprilFoolsDay, google, hulu, lolz, thinkgeek, top, web, youtube

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