Category · 6 records
April Fools
The pranks Google has published on April Fools' Day since 2000. Each record notes the date, what the page promised and where it was archived, without mistaking a joke for a product.
- Google Museum
Prank › April FoolsMentalPlex, Google's first April Fools' prank (2000)
April 1, 2000 — On April 1, 2000, Google presented MentalPlex, a search that needed no typing: users just had to project a mental picture of what they wanted to find.
- Google Museum
Prank › April FoolsPigeonRank, the pigeons that ranked the web (2002)
April 1, 2002 — The 2002 page parodied PageRank: it said the technology behind the results was flocks of trained pigeons that pecked a steel bar at every relevant page, and that this method made the results hard to manipulate.
- Google Museum
Prank › April FoolsTiSP, free internet through the toilet (2007)
April 1, 2007 — The April 1, 2007 release, datelined Mountain View, announced Google TiSP (BETA), short for Toilet Internet Service Provider: a free, ad-supported wireless internet provider for anyone with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a municipal sewer system.
- Google Museum
Prank › April FoolsPokémon Challenge, catching Pokémon in Google Maps (2014)
March 31, 2014 — On March 31, 2014 Google announced, with Pokémon and Nintendo, a "training tool" for catching Pokémon scattered across streets, forests and mountains in Google Maps.
- Google Museum
Prank › April FoolsMic Drop, the Gmail prank that backfired (2016)
April 1, 2016 — For April 1, 2016, Gmail got a Mic Drop button that sent a dismissive animation and closed the conversation for good.
- Google Museum
Event › April FoolsThe year Google called off April Fools' Day (2020)
March 2020 — Twenty years after MentalPlex, Google suspended its April Fools' pranks.