A year after introducing the “teacup version,” Google Japan is back with a new physical form factor for Android’s default keyboard app: the Gboard bar.
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Google has declined to participate in April Fools Day 2022, marking the third year in a row, but is that actually a good thing?
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While other brands might just do one or two jokes, Google goes all out for April Fools’ Day. It’s a very serious and long-running affair with major product teams partaking in fun feature announcements. April 1, 2019 falls on a Monday, with many of the pranks beginning to appear on Sunday.
Google takes April Fools’ very, very seriously. While other companies might do one or two announcements, multiple teams at Google step up and add an Easter Egg (some golden) to their products and services.
In 2018, April Fools’ again falls on a weekend and while other companies announced on Friday, Google is being a traditionalist and unveiling their jokes beginning the day before and going into Sunday. Be sure to join us for live breaking coverage of all the shenanigans from Google, Alphabet, and the rest of the tech industry.
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 …
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.
April Fools’ Day is often one of the more eventual days of the year for Google and other tech companies. This year appears to be no different as a variety of pranks have already appeared around the web. We’ve been analyzing them all, right as they come in, and have listed some of our favorites below. We’ll keep this list updated as more April Fools’ Day gags continue to roll in. We have feeling there will be no shortage of them either…
After adding an April Fools’ Easter egg to Maps this morning, Google has since added another gem to its mobile version of Chrome. First noticed by the Google Operating System blog, there’s now a menu in Chrome mobile that lets you “share a reaction” from any webpage you visit.
As an April Fools Day prank, Google used Google Maps to place pretend Pokemon all over the world. The company later revealed that it was rewarding people who managed to find all 150 (or 151, don’t forget Mew) pocket monsters with a special gift. A tech superpower with endless resources, what might Google be sending this skilled group of individuals? Google Play credit? A free Nexus phone or tablet? Tickets to I/O? What could it be? To congratulate people who managed to wrangle the digital beasts, Mountain View has issued a letter certifying their success, along with a set of business cards labeling them as a “Pokemon Master” at Google Inc.
Google continued its April Fools tradition with a long list of pranks yesterday, one of which included announcing a new “Shelfies” feature for Gmail that let users snap and share selfies to use as background in Gmail. The feature, which was completely functional within Gmail yesterday, was clearly just a bit of fun for April Fools day, but Google announced today that it will actually stick around as a new custom theme sharing feature.
While Gmail has allowed users to create custom themes since 2012, it will now provide an option to “Share your theme” within settings. The Gmail team will also be sharing some of its favorite themes shared by the community through its Google+ page. Here’s how it works:
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Richard Branson and Tony Fadell
Okay, so Maps isn’t the only Google property kicking off April Fool’s Day on March 31st this year.
Tony Fadell, most known for his role in designing Apple’s iPod and current head of now Google-owned smart appliance company Nest, and Virgin’s founder and chairman Richard Branson have teamed up in an imaginative and rather convincing spoof video announcing a pretend partnership for a product called Total Temperature Control.
The idea is that every seat on Virgin’s airline has its own Nest smart thermostat to control the seat’s environment. It’s almost believable enough until it’s revealed that temperature options include destinations… see for yourself below.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YMD6xELI_k]
It looks like Google’s usual April Fools festivities have just kicked off as we officially roll into April 1st in Japan. Google’s first gag is the recruiting video above looking for a qualified “Pokemon Master” for the Google Maps team and comes alongside a mini-game easter egg in the Google Maps app for iOS and Android.
While the video above showing some type of augmented reality style Pokemon game integrated with Google Maps is almost certainly just for a bit of April Fools fun, an easter egg already live in the Google Maps app on iOS and Android actually lets users play a Pokemon mini-game:
As you can see in the screenshots above, small Pokemon characters are appearing scattered throughout the Google Maps app. You can tap the characters to catch them and also a view a detailed Pokedex that shows artwork, character details, and the Pokemon you still have to catch.
Those that catch all the Pokemon between now and April 2nd will go on to Google for a final challenge to crown the true Pokemon Master for the Google Maps team. To turn on the mini-game, tap the search bar in the Google Maps app followed by “Press Start.”
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Google’s Nathan Johns posted a picture of an all-pink Tesla Model S yesterday complete with the official bat signal on its hood, bat wings as a spoiler, and Chrome’s logo embedded in the middle of its alloys.
This candy-coated Tesla apparently belongs to Google cofounder Sergey Brin. According to Search Engine Round Table, Brin’s beloved and spirited Googlers played an elaborate April Fool’s Day prank last Monday and transformed his zero-emissions car into a cute flashy Batmobile.
Brin—seen driving his Tesla around LinkedIn’s headquarters in the image above (via Brian Li)—is sometimes called “Batman” around Google because of his Batcave-like Google X repository.
[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.
Google, which seems to give every department a mission for today, has a bunch of great stuff (like every year):
Besides the 8 bit maps, above, we have:
Google Chrome multitask:
LLCoolJ makes a special appearance to explain Tap, the new Morse Code Keyboard for Android devices (Japanese version):
Google Self Driving NASCAR Racing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dP_Et8-pQNo
YouTube comes to DVD…
Fiber Bar for Kansas City:
Also, Google’s Really Advanced Search, weather control, Interplanetary Analytics, GoRo, Google Street Roo, underwater image search (Chinese), and Voice for Pets.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KhZKNZO8mQ&feature=youtu.be]
I was just thinking about something like this.
By the way, is that LL Cool J at the end?
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In case you were worried that 8-Bit Maps were the only new release today, fear not. Google is releasing the Google Racing Autonomous NASCAR racing team in a variety of flavors, including Android, YouTube, and Chrome.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rznYifPHxDg]
Love this. And it is not “just for Nintendo.” It is for everyone.
(Also, notice the “Google Store”? That might not be a joke.)