April Fools Websites

[campbell]

Start with the obvious:

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html

Meh.

[campbell]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/looflirpa/

I don't know. I think they're using 4/1 to try out product ideas now, after that Tauntaun sleeping bag became so popular.

I think the light saber popsicles will be offered for real, eventually.

[campbell]

Heh, I like what YouTube did. Click on 1911 in the corner of any video...

I think this link will give you an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBm-nKXCsk4&feature=player_embedded

[or maybe it's because I already clicked on 1911]

[campbell]

ew.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=llsfp&xhr=t&q=helvetica&cp=4&qe=aGVsdg&qesig=W9V-tU5l9grUQuxtibkqpg&pkc=AFgZ2tlY6CL1BUNXX6k8TRUZdoYF6rettgyCwbcXiDCV89 NqnU-haoF7Opj814jfllV0wpKcd8HbavbYyec0sGdVTShLlJ3Y0w&pf=p&sclient=psy&aq=0&aqi=&aql=&oq=helv&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=54b4861f18cab4a

[Snagus]

New restrictions in effect today. Due to server storage limitations we are allowing only 10 posts per day for each user.

[campbell]

Ooooh, I shrank.

[silverfox]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/superpiipii.html

[freddecker]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/looflirpa/

I don't know. I think they're using 4/1 to try out product ideas now, after that Tauntaun sleeping bag became so popular.

I think the light saber popsicles will be offered for real, eventually.

Want these products for real?! Let us know!
Select your favorites below, fill in your email address, then submit to make your voice heard!
.

[campbell]

Well, there ya go.

[Feif]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1583517/Flying-penguins-found-by-BBC-programme.html
BBC found penguins that fly to the rain forests to get warm!

[Pills]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNm8ZCJ7Fx8&feature=featured

YouTube 1911

EDIT: Ninja'd. Doh.

[nonactuarialactuary]

Grooveshark is in 3D today, with the tagline HTML5+3D=Winning

[Chronus]

Grooveshark is in 3D today, with the tagline HTML5+3D=Winning

:lol: I love Grooveshark.

[Pseudolus]

My adblock icon in Chrome showed an update available today. Namely

Breaking out of the browser
The AdBlock app for Chrome and Safari is pretty fantastic for blocking ads on web pages, and millions of people use it daily while they surf. Users report that they forget what surfing was even like before AdBlock, and some even report a sense of bliss at seeing the before-and-after effect on web pages.

But the number one requested feature has been a way to block the ads that assault us all in the "real world" -- such as billboards, TV commercials, and magazine ads. Unfortunately, AdBlock hasn't been available outside the browser window.

Until today. Introducing the beta version of AdBlock Freedom: augmented reality eyewear that detects and removes ads from the world in realtime.

Here's how it works: when powered off, AdBlock Freedom functions as sunglasses. Slide a discreet switch on the frame, and AdBlock Freedom begins scanning your view for objects that it recognizes as ads. Any detected ad gets a "smudge" overlay to blend it into its surroundings.

[...]

http://chromeadblock.com/freedom/

[asdfasdf]

Gmail motion

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/images/motion/motion_printable_guide.gif

ETA, coming soon to google docs

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/images/motion/docs.jpg

[Stanley Milgram]

A trending topic on Twitter is that Snooki got paid more than Toni Morrison to speak at Rutgers. (http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110401_ap_snookigets32ktoappearonrutgerscampus.h tml)

[Vorian Atreides]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/superpiipii.html
:lol:

Now the ladies can do it just like the guys!

Wonder who would win in a head to head competition. (No pun intended :judge:)

[thing]

Car-B-Gone (http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/04/car-b-gone-mitch-altman%e2%80%99s-newest-universal-remote.html)

[Lucy]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/looflirpa/

I don't know. I think they're using 4/1 to try out product ideas now, after that Tauntaun sleeping bag became so popular.

I think the light saber popsicles will be offered for real, eventually.

These are awesome. I want the Minecraft portal.

[Actuary321]

Don't know where else to put this so here will do.

Our company newsletter today was a good April Fools edition. It had a word search with insurance terms with a prize for the first person to complete it. So of course, I cheated and found a word search solver on the net. And as I expected there was a catch. They had left one word out of the Wordsearch. So a little cut and paste and I turned in my wordsearch with all of the words circled.

:lol:

It was great seeing the editors face when I handed it in and she asked where the missing word was and I pointed it out right in an obvious place with no other words around it.

She liked my solution so good, she gave me a consolation prize.

[BassFreq]

Honey??? What's for dinner tonight???

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/index0401.php

[Vorian Atreides]

Honey??? What's for dinner tonight???

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/index0401.php
:lol:

Tiniest meat!

:lol:

[annabel lee]

xkcd (http://xkcd.com) is now xk3d, complete with instructions (http://xkcd.com/xk3d/) on how to 3-d-ify your favorite comic.

[asdfasdf]

xkcd (http://xkcd.com) is now xk3d, complete with instructions (http://xkcd.com/xk3d/) on how to 3-d-ify your favorite comic.

I was wondering about that, ie 1.0 here doesn't seem to work to generate the image.

[Walla]

A Classic from 1985:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1119283/index.htm

And I was (and am) Mets fan so this one REALLY hit home.

Here's the Wikipedia page for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidd_Finch

[annabel lee]

Oh, and then there's this (http://mylawlicense.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-york-times-we-just-got-fooled-again.html)...

[Stanley Milgram]

Oh, and then there's this (http://mylawlicense.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-york-times-we-just-got-fooled-again.html)...

or this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A)

[Walla]

For we comics fans the Great Switcheroonie on April 1, 1997 was the best:

From the Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_strip_switcheroo
The Comic strip switcheroo (also known as the Great Comics Switcheroonie or the Great April Fools' Day Comics Switcheroonie) was a series of jokes played out between comic strip writers and artists, without the foreknowledge of their editors, on April Fool's Day 1997. The Switcheroo was masterminded by comic strip creators Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott, creators of the Baby Blues daily newspaper comic strip.

According to Brian Walker's book The Comics: Since 1945, forty-six different syndicated artists participated. Several of these switches were one for one (Mike Peters trading with Lynn Johnston, Scott Adams with Bil Keane, Jeff MacNelly with Mort Walker), while several comics did more of a three-way or multiple swap, and one artist (Kevin Fagan) just swapped hands for the day. Charles Schulz (creator of Peanuts) and Patrick McDonnell (creator of Mutts) were slated to do each other's strips, but backed out because one of them didn't think it was a good idea. There were no rules to speak of; each artist was permitted to do what he or she wanted.

The one-day experiment proved to be a success of sorts, garnering some publicity and being a harmless yet amusing prank played on the newspapers, the readers, and the comic syndicates.

The story behind The Great Cartoon Switcheroonie:
http://www.babyblues.com/scrapbook/switcheroonie.htm

Baby Blues was drawn by Stephen Bentley who is the cartoonist for "Herb & Jamal."http://www.babyblues.com/IMAGES/switcheroonie2.gif

This is the strip that Rick and Jerry designed for the 1997 April Fool's Day Switcheroonie for "Sherman's Lagoon" for Jim Toomey.
http://www.babyblues.com/IMAGES/switcheroonie1.gif

Blondie as drawn by Jim Davis (Garfield)
http://www.april-fools.us/blondie980401.gif

The Switched FoxTrot Strip
http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=99d086f77f9894fb5b2b940fcd8d4045&w=900.0

The Switched Family Circus Strip
http://200703top100.s3.amazonaws.com/1997switcheroo.jpg

[Pseudolus]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/dungeon-helper/

World of Warcraft gets its own version of "Clippy".

[Vorian Atreides]

I remember that! :tup:

For we comics fans the Great Switcheroonie on April 1, 1997 was the best:

From the Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_strip_switcheroo


The story behind The Great Cartoon Switcheroonie:
http://www.babyblues.com/scrapbook/switcheroonie.htm

Baby Blues was drawn by Stephen Bentley who is the cartoonist for "Herb & Jamal."http://www.babyblues.com/IMAGES/switcheroonie2.gif

This is the strip that Rick and Jerry designed for the 1997 April Fool's Day Switcheroonie for "Sherman's Lagoon" for Jim Toomey.
http://www.babyblues.com/IMAGES/switcheroonie1.gif

Blondie as drawn by Jim Davis (Garfield)
http://www.april-fools.us/blondie980401.gif

The Switched FoxTrot Strip
http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=99d086f77f9894fb5b2b940fcd8d4045&w=900.0

The Switched Family Circus Strip
http://200703top100.s3.amazonaws.com/1997switcheroo.jpg

[Chronus]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/dungeon-helper/

World of Warcraft gets its own version of "Clippy".

A few years back blizzard announced a new playable character that was a two headed troll. You only got to control half of the body and another player got to control the other half. You had to coop inside of one character. It was pretty good stuff.

[Gentle Giant]

OK, maybe a bit late for the majority of you who won't see this until tomorrow morning, but...

Mankato (http://city-mankato.us/), MN has an April Fools oriented tourism site.

They advertise that, due to an anomalous crack in the earth's crust, Mankato, MN never falls below 70 degrees F.

Also, they have an underwater city,

one of the great pyramids: According to one legend, Mankato was founded and built by Gods who arrived in the area in great silver glowing disks. They befriended the Indians, taught them strange building techniques and left after two generations! Several legends even mention a pyramid that was built as a homing beacon that was later swallowed up by an earth tremor in about 1300 B.C.! It was excavated in 1957 and remains as a highpoint of the Mankota State University Campus.

Also, whale watching (http://city-mankato.us/letterg.html) on the MN River.

[Gentle Giant]

The Moog company has a brand new Theremin!!!!@@!!11one11!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stobfk1Mfjk

[Blue Man]

Overthinking It still has their AFD page up. It's awesome.

[Jables]

http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=GovHickenlooper%2FCBONLayout&cid=1251590795163&p=1251590795163&pagename=GOVHWrapper

[1695814]

http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=GovHickenlooper%2FCBONLayout&cid=1251590795163&p=1251590795163&pagename=GOVHWrapper:golfclap:

[Vorian Atreides]

http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=GovHickenlooper%2FCBONLayout&cid=1251590795163&p=1251590795163&pagename=GOVHWrapper

:golfclap:
:golfclap: x 2.

And Hickenlooper* is such a great name for a governor.



*And the fact that he was previously the mayor of Denver even adds to the whole affair!

[campbell]

Oh, and then there's this (http://mylawlicense.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-york-times-we-just-got-fooled-again.html)...

yes, I noticed (http://powip.com/2011/04/tsk-tsk-ny-times/).

[Browncoat]

April Fools falling on a Sunday this year means that, if any websites went caa-razy, I missed it. Also, if Loner started another thread saying he was having a baby, I missed that too.

Someone fill me in.

[asdfasdf]

Google had a quest view in google maps, that made everything look like the link world map, which was pretty awesome, also, google tap was made available, allowing you to text in morse code.

[ORLYLOL]

Did anyone see Google Quest? I wish they had kept it.

ETA: Ninja'd!

[asdfasdf]

Did anyone see Google Quest? I wish they had kept it.

ETA: Ninja'd!

It looks like it's sort of still there, the link from my thread yesterday openend up a quest view of NA for me

http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actuarial_discussion_forum/showthread.php?t=237605

It doesn't show up on the options, but it still exists if you access through a link. Some cities have special markers etc, there are some kids you see in some places, and famous landmarks too.

[asdfasdf]

Central paris for example

http://maps.google.com/?ll=48.864376,2.313738&spn=0.03416,0.057936&t=8&z=14

[ORLYLOL]

It looks like the game is gone though

[asdfasdf]

London

http://maps.google.com/?ll=51.506873,-0.100422&spn=0.032321,0.057936&t=8&z=14

[asdfasdf]

It looks like the game is gone though

THERE WAS A GAME AND I MISSED IT!


FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Honestly I was thinking when I saw the map how awesome it would be to be able to play embedded link in there, dang, maybe someone saved it somehow somewhere.......

[LoneGirl]

Also on Google yesterday, if you tried to Google the weather forecast it would give you drop down boxes and tell you that you could now choose your weather (choose Sunny, Cloudy, Rain, etc). It annoyed me because I really did want to know what the real forecast was...thankfully weather underground didn't play any stupid games.

[BassFreq]

Google also added a "Really Advanced Search" function which, among other options, allows the user to search websites by font or embarrassing grammatical faux pas. Its still available at the moment...
http://www.google.com/js/reallyadvanced.html

[mlschop]

Google also made a video saying they are entering their autonomous car into Nascar competition.

[mlschop]

Wonder what Google's shareholders think about them wasting all of these resources on April Fools' jokes? :-P

[Aprile Pazzo]

Wonder what Google's shareholders think about them wasting all of these resources on April Fools' jokes? :-P


Are you kidding. Brilliant marketing strategy that spurs internet traffic you fool.

April Fool's day is great business strategy. It spawned this discussion. How often did you see posting about what websites looked like on March 1?

[Aprile Pazzo]

Google also made a video saying they are entering their autonomous car into Nascar competition.

I heard a radio guy say, if you see one of those cars, hit it. And then blame the google car.

[Aprile Pazzo]

Course it probably has a camera and can prove it was your fault.

[OddSox]

the video accompanying 8-bit Google Maps was my favorite part of the whole thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEy033LU5a8

[Pills]

I got a huge kick out of this, but I'm heavily into the series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NufHsmITjM

[DownInTexas]

XKCD had a comic that varied by geographical location, browser, and ISP. My favorite was the one that appeared at MIT and Harvard. I'll post the links to all of them later.

[snikelfritz]

1, has anybody found any of the treasure in Google's treasure map?

2, Gmail Blue, awesome, I was mad that I didn't have the option to use it today, I assumed it would go live.

3, I think I found the Economist's, "London's Airport Problem".

What else is out there this year?

[Baby, ByeBye]

Google smell. YouTube #1 video..

[Maphisto's Sidekick]

1, has anybody found any of the treasure in Google's treasure map?

2, Gmail Blue, awesome, I was mad that I didn't have the option to use it today, I assumed it would go live.

3, I think I found the Economist's, "London's Airport Problem".

What else is out there this year?

ThinkGeek is offering, among other items, a Eye of Sauron desk lamp.

[BassFreq]

Whole Foods is featuring "BroTein™ bars" and a new sevice "gently used matzoh recycling" http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

[BassFreq]

Post Office to take over NFIP -
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2013/04/01/286576.htm

[Miss Understood]

WestJet has done some great AFD commercials.. including kids in the baggage compartment..haven't been able to find one for this year.

[Browncoat]

ThinkGeek is offering, among other items, a Eye of Sauron desk lamp.

A couple-few years ago, thinkgeek offered a tauntaun sleeping bag on April Fools Day, but fans went nuts when they found out it was a joke, so now they actually offer it. Think they’ll be offering this lamb at some point?

[Rose 2]

A couple-few years ago, thinkgeek offered a tauntaun sleeping bag on April Fools Day, but fans went nuts when they found out it was a joke, so now they actually offer it. Think they’ll be offering this lamb at some point?

At least for the last few years, if you go to put one of their April Fools items in your cart, they ask you to vote on which items you would like to see actually made. I am disappointed they never made the Dharma Initiative alarm clock.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/dharma-alarm-clock.shtml?cpg=53219374&msg_id=53219374&et_rid=963785469&linkid=53219374_headline_dharmaclock

[Colonel Smoothie]

I wonder if any of these joke products ever become reality. I suppose that some things that are intended as a joke might actually be worthwhile to pursue.

[Pintsize]

I wonder if any of these joke products ever become reality. I suppose that some things that are intended as a joke might actually be worthwhile to pursue.
You mean like, oh I don't know, a Star Wars tauntaun sleeping bag?

[FattyMcGee]

https://www.redbox.com/

on the right, you can now get a sandwich! :popcorn: