It’s hard to believe that it’s already been over 9 years since Gmail was opened up in beta. When it was first launched, many thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke because it was launched April 1, 2004. Some joke, eh? The funny part is that it stayed in beta for over five years, so if that qualifies as a joke, then good on Google. Here’s an infographic that shows the timeline. Are you on Gmail? …
April Fool’s Day is pretty annoying for the unprepared. The flood gates of false announcements, buyouts, and new products fill the feeds and often get people excited or discouraged until they remember the date. It gets bigger every year. Some companies such as Google play multiple tricks on people. Others do even worse – making announcements that aren’t so far fetched that they actually get some people to believe them for a time, embarrassing them when they spread the words to their friends. I’ve been a victim of that in the past. Never again. This year’s round includes some standard cleverness,…
Oh, those pranksters up in Mountain View, CA. Every year they roll out several April Fool’s Day jokes. Last year’s included being able to change the weather and an exceptional one that made many locations on Google Maps 8-bit. This year’s first one focuses on YouTube. The site was apparently started in 2005 as a contest to find the best video ever. Entries close at midnight and then the decade-long process of identifying the best video ever will begin. They’ll have 30,000 technicians watching videos over the next decade with a panel of judges that include film critics, YouTube celebrities, and…
Another sighting of Google’s yearly April Fool’s Day jokes is live. If you search for “weather” you will have the standard forecast available, but you’ll have the new option of using the “Google Weather Control” interface to make changes if you’d like. You’ll see in the image above I set it to snow in Beverly Hills on Sunday. Once you make your changes, Google prompts you with this warning: “Please notice, after submitting it takes approximately 45 minutes until your weather changes take effect. Note: exercise caution when setting extremes.”…
Google has become one of the biggest pranksters every year for April Fool’s Day. Over the years they’ve put out several clever and enjoyable pranks. This year’s first one is also an Easter Egg with plenty of Google Maps searching for people to do. They went 8-bit, NES-style. It’ll make you want to pull out the original Legend of Zelda and run around the maps from screen to screen. Here is the video as well as some of the best ones that we were able to find. Each is linked to the map itself so click away! …
Working with computers is tedious. The constant typing on keyboards and clicking on a mouse makes composing and sending emails a draconian activity. Thanks to the geniuses at Google, the days of keyboard-dependent emails are behind us. Today, they are introducing Gmail Motion. It’s a new way to communicate. “Using your computer’s camera and a spacial tracking algorithm, Gmail Motion interprets physical movement and turns it into actionable commands,” explained Gmail Product Manager Paul McDonald. “For example, to open a message, make a motion as if you were opening an envelope.” Dennis…
