Top 20 April Fools 2010 Internet Pranks

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April 1, 2010
By the ZippyCart Ecommerce Software Reviews Content Team

April Fools day is one that jokesters around the country look forward to every year, and as the Internet has grown, we have all quickly learned that major companies are no stranger to a healthy sense of humor, as they often use the trust in their brands to make a fool out of many unsuspecting customers once a year. Google has often led the pack in April Fools jokes, from its mysterious new features that pop up to its use of YouTube to trick the masses. Over the past few years, Google has flipped YouTube upside down (literally, the entire website appeared upside down), Rick Rolled searchers, and even introduced that it had a new boss: CADIE (Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity). This year, they’re at it again and below you will find some of the best April Fools pranks of 2010 currently online.

1. Virgle

Virgin Mobile and Google have announced that they are teaming up to create Virgle: a mission to populate Mars starting in 2014. We have to hand it to both Google and Virgin for this one, as they both have the money, technology, and the means to pull something like this off, making this hoax one that sci-fi nerds across the interwebs might be salivating over. Hopefully they’ll eventually announce how many people they’ve tricked into applying to be a Virgle Pioneer and join the hundreds led by Google co-founders to be the first permanent human colony on Mars.

2. The Starbucks Plenta™ and Micra™

While we won’t say who, someone on the ZippyCart team was so convinced by this prank that they almost stormed off to Starbucks to complain about how “outlandish” this is. Today, Starbucks has announced that they “Listen[ed] to Customer Request[s] for More Sizes,” and have introduced the Plenta™ and the Micra™. The Micra™ is a mere 2oz while the Plenta™ is 128oz. That’s double the size of a Big Gulp and looks equal to a large movie theater popcorn container. This prank comes shortly after they announced their real addition of the Trenta™ which will be a 32oz option eventually available at their coffee shops, so maybe that (and not America’s vast consumption of Starbucks coffees) is what makes this so believable.

3. TextP from YouTube

According to the YouTube homepage, a new format is available for watching videos online called TextP. TextP dumbs down video to a simple text-based format and reportedly saves YouTube $1 per second of bandwidth. You can view any video in TextP format by appending &textp=fool to the end of any URL on YouTube. YouTube set the bar pretty high after flipping their entire site upside down, so while TextP is unique, you decide for yourself if it’s as convincing:

4. Google Changes it’s Name to Topeka

In response to the mayor of Topeka, Kansas changing his city’s name to Google for the month of March, reportedly as a way to compete for a spot in Google’s Fiber for Communities program, Google has changed its name to Topeka. Google even took the time to explain how this will effect their brand equity as well as proper usage of the term Topeka so that users can quickly get used to this big change.

5. Google Translate for Animals

This one is a classic, so it’s a wonder why Google only has this on their UK site. Google has introduced “Translate for Animals (beta): Bridging the gap between animals and humans.” They suggest that this is an app for the Android network that allows users to translate what their pet is saying. A staff member of ours is kept up every night by a meowing cat. If only this app were real, she would be all too happy to pay whatever it takes to understand what those haunting meows mean.

6. DeviantArt.com and Twilight

We’re not going to lie, our team was really hoping that there would be a Twilight joke played on some unsuspecting users, and DeviantArt.com has just the audience for this type of joke, as most of them probably despise this teen hit. DeviantArt has changed all of their users’ icons to ones of Bella, Edward, Jacob, or… Lady Gaga.

7. Funny or Die is no More. Now it’s Bieber of Die

Justin Bieber is a tween dream that has competed for the hearts of teenage girls everywhere and has even won over relentless Twi-hards, and now, he has taken over Funny or Die. Classic videos like David After the Dentist have become Bieber After the Dentist and the entire site has been tricked out to look like a glorified MySpace page. A prank like this could only come from the humorous mind of Will Ferrel.

8. ABC’s The Blind Sayid and many more

ABC.com got into the mix this year by sharing its new lineup of shows including Grey’s Astronomy, the Blind Sayid, and announcing a cross-over event between All My Children and Lost.

Other Great Internet Pranks for April Fools 2010:

9. ThinkGeek.com is advertising a variety of fake products including a plush bacon toy, canned unicorn meat, and more.

10. Reddit.com is letting everyone become an admin for the day. Simply click # and turn admin on after logging in.

11. CollegeHumor.com states that their site is down and anyone who has visited is now under investigation by the United States Department of Information.

12. ProBlogger.net is stating that they were acquired by Google… oh to dream.

13. The Whitehouse even joined in today and states that they are opening up Camp David to the public.

14. Omniture announced MCP today which suggests that they can measure mouse pressure to determine how much a user actually wants to make a purchase.

15. TBS has announced that you can watch Family Guy in 3D on their site.

16. Yelp.com announced that they are having a reality TV show and are holding auditions.

17. Etsy.com has changed it’s name to Esty.

18. Gmail has changed their login page so that there are no vowels.

19. The VolkswagonOwnersClub.com has changed to the AccordOwnersClub.com.

20. There’s a secret 20th April Fools joke somewhere on this page…