As we’re sure you’re all well aware, today is April 1 and April Fool’s Day for many pranksters. It’s definitely a challenge to pull off an original prank (we’re looking at you, fake engagements on Facebook) and several companies pulled out all the stops. For all you swashbucklers out there, you’ll love Google Maps’ Treasure Mode, which allows you hunt for hidden treasure by cracking the codes through various methods. You might even try Google Nose. Type your favorite smell in the search bar and smell away.
Google’s newest Gmail update, Gmail Blue, is a direct dig towards competitor, Microsoft, and its upcoming Windows Blue update as well as Windows 8 in general. The lead designer at Google asks, how do we redesign and recreate something and keep it exactly the same? No doubt a jab at Microsoft’s reputation for redesigning its products several times only to have them have the same problems. Microsoft didn’t take the pranks lying down though. Head over to Bing and type "Google" into the search bar and you’ll see some good-natured zings on their end too. The pranks extend into YouTube, which has decided it’s shutting down the website in order to pick the best video ever, which will obviously take a while. The winner will be announce in 2023. Then there’s Twitter, who will now charge its users to use vowels in their tweets. Did you get duped today?