April Fools’ day has become a big event on the internet, as the web is flooded with pranks (and companies try to get a bit of free publicity). We’ve rounded-up some of the best spoofs to hit the web this year- including YouTube ‘shutting down’, Twitter charging for vowels and Sony’s tech for pets.
YouTube ‘competiton’ to shut down
YouTube revealed that the whole video sharing site was just an ‘8-year competiton’. Google made the announcement that after 8 long years theYouTube experiment is over. It seems that when the video upload site was first created back in 2005 it was only to find the best video in the world. YouTube explained: “Thanks for all your great entries. YouTube finally has enough videos to begin selecting a winner. What do you think is the #bestvideo on YouTube?”
“We’ve been thrilled with all of the diverse, creative entries we’ve seen so far, and we can’t wait to begin the process of selecting the best video. We’ll be announcing the winner in 10 years.”
Vimeo becomes cat film site ‘Vimeow’
Vimeo, the video-sharing site, changed its name to “Vimeow,” catering to felis catus-centric services. The site has room for all of your cat videos, the Forum is called the Litterbox, and following users is now called Patiently Stalking. Your mouse has turned into an actual mouse that you can chase around the screen. This, however, is just the beginning for Vimeow. Soon, they will introduce Tummyrub, which enables you to show your appreciation for any cat video, as well as Vimeow Purrks, a virtual e-program that gives you all the benefits of actual cat ownership. “Think of Vimeow as a small, cramped house with a lot of stuff in it, and a weird smell, and there are already a bunch of cats living there, but you can keep taking in more and more cats, because, well, they each have their own unique personality and, to be totally honest, you’re kind of lonely.”
Netflix adds ridiculously specific film genres
Netflix added a tongue-in-cheek category to user’s accounts. Netflix seems to be aware of their, sometimes, ridiculously precise categories, and took the joke up a notch for April Fools. Some suggestions include:
Movies That Are In English But Still Require Subtitles
Reality TV About People With No Concept Of Reality
Movies Featuring An Epic Nicolas Cage Meltdown
Twitter charges for Vowels
Twitter announced that they will start charging users $5/month for the use of vowels. For when 140 characters just isn’t enough to express your thoughts, Twttr will let you buy more characters in a a Scrabble-like value system. “The price of the extra character is based on a bidding system reflecting the popularity of the character you would like to add.”
Google Nose
“Smelling is believing.” Google unveiled its newest service on April Fools’, the groundbreaking “scent-sation” that is Google Nose – a feature allowing users to search by smell. It’s only in beta, mind you. Google is introducing a new search feature today called Google Nose. With over 15 million “scentibytes,” you can identify scents with the new search engine. The button “temporarily aligns molecules to emulate a particular scent.” So, if you want to find out what a wet dog, horse manure, or spring morning smells like, you can connect search with scents.
Sony ‘Tech For Pets’
Sony showed off gadgets for pets, under their new Animalia line of products. It includes a variety of products that fits any pet’s lifestyle, “whether they’re an urban commuter, a documentary buff looking to spend the night in, or a hardcore fitness nut with an active lifestyle.” The Hamster Workout provides music to the wheel, increasing its tempo the harder and faster your furry pal runs. The M3-OW KittyCans not only provides our feline friends clarity of sound, it also gives them an excuse to be what they’re meant to be – indifferent to human interaction. Lastly, the K9-4K television provides an ultra sharp picture quality, without the reds and greens all dogs can’t see to begin with as well as a 54.2 Surround Sound range that is beyond human hearing.
Google Maps launches ‘Treasure Mode’ (Google)
For the treasure-hunting pirates out there (or fans of the colour brown), a new Treasure Mode is available for use on the Google Maps service.
