April Fools’ roundup: Google’s got big dreams

The jokes are over for another year. April Fool’s Day has passed and you can go back to enjoying your favourite news sources in peace (that is, unless they get taken in by another hoax). Some big names took part in this year’s April Fools’ party and even though we didn’t (or maybe we did and you didn’t notice because it was that good), we found quite a few of the hoaxes quite fun.

So here is our round-up of our favourite April Fools’ hoaxes. Leading the pack is Google who seems to have crafted a prank for every one of its product on the web.

Chrome Multitask Mode
The dudes at Google are so brilliant and so damn clever that they came up with multitasking mode for Chrome. What does multitask mode mean for the average user? Well, it allows you browse the web with multiple cursors at the same time, giving you the chance to get more done faster. Google calls it the “ambinavigation” revolution. Ok where can I get my hands on this? Seriously?

Conan O’Brien’s Mashable takeover
Any of you notice something different about Mashable yesterday? Yep, it was orange and Pete Cashmore got fired. For its April Fools’ joke the social media news site decided to look inwards. Cashmore was fired and Conan O’Brien took over, turned the site orange and added a little tuft of hair in the corner of the screen, which revealed a rather frightening image of O’Brien himself, watching Mashable readers.

Cashmore’s face, which usually smiles at Mashable’s Twitter users, was replaced an image of Conan O’Brien… not smiling.

YouTube: The collection
YouTube is very excited to bring you… The Collection. Just what we have been waiting for – an opportunity to immortalise the YouTube experience with a DVD collection. The amazing collection will include every single movie, and 170 delivery trucks will bring the collection directly to your doorstep! This awesome collection comes with trending videos on laser disk, music on vinyl, and a snail mail system for comments.

Google’s Interplanetary Analytics
Just what you’ve always wanted, analytics for all planets in the milky way galaxy — finally we can prove that people from Mars have been visiting Memeburn. According to Google, “When the galaxy is our playground, marketers, analysts and webmasters will want to understand location use beyond Earth”. Of course they do! Creating solutions for the future, one kooky idea at a time.

Google Fiber bar
I, for one, am bummed this is a hoax, I mean it’s cutting-edge stuff. Google hasn’t been working with a fiber-optic network. Nope, the company has been making Fiber Bars — ooh yum. These awesome bars are able to detect what your body needs with body analytics (amazing) and will deliver what you need, when you need it. Why is no one actually working this?

Google’s 8-Bit Maps
Nintendo rules and Google recognises that. So Google decided to go all old school Nintendo with Google Maps. A technological back step but for the retro geeks who love all things old-school, it may be one of the awesomest things Google has ever done.

Toshiba’s heart-shaped tablets
If Toshiba really did bring out a heart-shaped tablet would you actually buy it? Debatable, but with patents flying everywhere and certain companies implying they called dibs on the rectangle, Toshiba may have to build an oddly shaped tablet one day. So Toshiba brings you the Oblong, the Rhombus, and the Amore (a lovely heart). Try pay attention to the music 0.43/4.

Adblock to become Catblock
What could be better than replacing one annoyance with another? Michael, who builds Adblocker for Chrome, has a cat who likes to play with his laptop. Michael leaves his laptop unattended and Catblocker is born. Instead of blocking ads, Catblocker replaces them with pictures of cats. Oh yay. Judging from the comments, people really like the idea and seem to want it to stay.

Gearburn’s SIII prank
The Samsung Galaxy S III smashed all possible competition with its out of this world specs. It’s got a 2.0Ghz hex-core CPU. Tech specs reveal the CPU to be part of Samsung’s ARM based Exynos 6450 SoC. What more could you want in a phone? I bet it could order your food for you and go to work in your place.