List of Google Easter eggs

Google has a tradition of perpetrating hoaxes, especially on April Fools' Day, as well as various easter eggs.

Easter eggs

Google has added some Easter eggs to its products and services to entertain and amuse users.

Search Engine

• Searching for "askew" or "tilt" using Google will cause the search results to be displayed at a slight angle.
• Searching for "Atari Breakout" and then clicking Images will start a game of Breakout using the image results as bricks. When one wins it searches something else randomly and plays again.
• Searching for "Do a barrel roll" or "z or r twice" will cause the search result to rotate 360 degrees when showing. This is often connected with Nintendo's Star Fox games.
• Searching for "zerg rush" causes a bunch of Google "o"s to attack the result page and eventually destroy it; the user can, however, fight back by tapping on them. After destroying the results, the "o"s then arrange themselves into two capital 'G's, representing the acronym for "good game".
• Searching for "Bletchley Park" will cause the title of the info card to appear as if it was being deciphered by Google. This is a reference to the fact that Bletchley Park, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was the central site of the United Kingdom's Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), which during the Second World War regularly penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powers.
• Searching for "kerning" will increase the spacing between every letter in the word kerning by 1 pixel whenever it shows up in the search results page. Conversely, searching for "keming" (a common example of unfortunate kerning) will decrease the spacing between letters of the word when it shows up in the search results page.
• Searching for any actor's name followed by "bacon number" returns the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon value.
• Searching for "recursion" will result in Google asking if the user meant "Recursion."
• Searching for "Conway's Game of Life" produces the Life simulation described by Conway. If you look closely, you can see it spells Google.
• Searching for "how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood" using "Search by voice" produces a vocal response of another tongue twister "A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood".
• Searching for "Festivus" places a Festivus pole in the left side of the window.
• Searching for "Santa Claus" or "Christmas decorations" places an animation of a snowy landscape with Santa Claus and his reindeer riding across the top of the search results. On Christmas Eve, a map will appear where Santa is currently located.
• Searching for "anagram" results in the search engine asking "Did you mean: nag a ram" ("nag a ram" is an anagram of the word "anagram")
• Searching for "Google in 1998" results in a 1998 Google search screen appearing in place of the current Google search screen. Clicking on the first result will bring the user to the Wayback Machine's version of Google from 1998. However, clicking I'm Feeling Lucky will go to a page showing google's history in depth.
• Searching for "Google Pacman" has a playable version of the game appear on the screen.
• Searching for the film star Jason Isaacs returns "Hello to Jason Isaacs", a reference to the BBC Radio 5 live film review program with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo.
• Searching 'who are you' using the voice recognition search causes the voiceover to say 'searching for oneself may take a lifetime. But a good place to start is classic rock.'
• Searching for "beam me up, Scotty" using voice search produces a vocal response that says "I cannot do it, Captain, I do not have the power." in an impersonation of the character Mr. Scott from Star Trek.
• Searching for "What does the fox say?" using voice search produces various vocal responses from the song of the same name by Ylvis.
• Searching for "same sex marriage", "Drag queen" or "gay rights" will cause the navigation bar to turn into rainbow polygons.
• Searching for "Webdriver torso" will cause the Google logo to change to look like a Webdriver Torso video.
• Searching for "marquee html", "<marquee>" or "marquee tag" will cause the number of results caption to scroll sideways continuously, similar to the effect of the marquee HTML element.
• Searching for "blink html", "<blink>", or "blink tag" will cause bold text in the search results to repeatedly flicker between visible and hidden, similar to the effect of the blink HTML element.

Calculator

• The Calculator accepts many humorous units of measurement, including the Beard-second (5 nm), Potrzebie (2.2633 mm), Smoot (5 ft, 7 inches), ngogn (11.5938151 ml), blintz (36.4253863 g), donkeypower (250.033167 W); and the prefixes hella- (10^27), furshlugginer- (10^6), etc
• The Calculator recognizes a number of strings as numbers. They can be entered by themselves or used in expressions. They must be entered without quotation marks. When used in an expression, the phrases must be entered in lowercase. In addition to mathematical and scientific constants like pi, e and Avogadro's number the Calculator also accepts:
  • "the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything" equals 42 as does "the answer to life, the universe, and everything", a reference to Douglas Adams's novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The same reference is made when speaking to an artificial intelligence named Meliza next to "the face on Mars" in Google Earth. When the number 42 is typed, the AI produces the output "42 is the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything."
  • "the loneliest number" equals "1", a reference to the song by Harry Nilsson.
  • "the number of horns on a unicorn" "1".
  • "once in a blue moon" equals "1.16699016 × 10⁻⁸ hertz".
  • "a bakers dozen" equals "13".

Google Maps and Google Earth

• In early test versions of Google Maps, searching for a route between locations separated by expanses of water (e.g. Paris and New York) provided road directions to the coast of the destination country (in this case, the west coast of France) before suggesting "Swim the Atlantic Ocean (3,500 miles)" or another ocean for a different distance.
• The measurement tool in Google Earth allows users to measure distance in smoots, a unit of length derived from a tradition at MIT. Smoots are also recognized by Google calculator: 1 smoot in m gives the result 1 smoot = 1.7018 meters.
• Going on Google Street View, and heading to the rear of the company's Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, California, the Google Street View's production team can be seen. Similarly, by looking up Google's office in Wrocław, Poland on Street View, one can see Google employees from that office and similarly for Dublin, Ireland.
• When the Business Photos feature was introduced (utilising the Street View API) Google's Lenoir, North Carolina datacentre published a full walkthrough. When navigating around the datacentre and its offices the viewer can see various employees dressed in costume, acting peculiarly, pulling faces and many other visual gags and easter eggs.
• Google Earth's search example is the Google headquarters (37 25' 19.1" N, 122 05' 06" W).
• Dragging the Google Street View "Peg man" onto Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, CA used to display him with a tie-dyed shirt. Also, while in street view on Telegraph Avenue, one can enter and have a look around some of the shops. He is also given special clothing for some widely observed special occasions: for Halloween he rides a broomstick; for Valentine's Day he stands upon a heart; and during Christmas week, he becomes a snowman. When dragged into LegoLand in Carlsbad, the "Peg Man" turns into a LEGO Minifigure. When dragged into Street View in Sun Valley, Idaho, he becomes a skier. When dragged onto the vicinity of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, "Peg Man" becomes a tennis player holding a racket. Dragged near the Kennedy Space Center, "Peg Man" becomes an astronaut.
• The Mars Feature of Google Earth used to allow users to speak to a primitive ELIZA clone on the planet, by searching for "Meliza", but it later vanished, either taken away or it has disappeared. It is back as of October 28, 2013.
• There is a place on the southern point of Half Moon Island, Antarctica that has blue "roads". When the "Peg Man" is dragged on this spot, the "Peg Man" turns into a penguin and users can explore the area the same as a road.
• Another 3D buildings easter egg involves the famous bridge jump scene from The Blues Brothers, which is recreated in Google Earth at the Tacony–Palmyra Bridge linking New Jersey and Philadelphia.
• In Google Maps, when "The Shire" or "Rivendell" is entered as the start point and "Mordor" as the destination and the walking directions button is clicked, the directions return the warning: "Use caution – One does not simply walk into Mordor." Works on Chrome (older) version of Google Maps. However, does not with the newer engine.
• On July 20, 2005, the 36th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon, Google debuted a version of Google Maps that included a small segment of the surface of the moon. It is based entirely on NASA images and includes only a very limited region. Panning causes the map to tile. The map also gives the locations of all moon landings, and the Google Moon FAQ humorously mentions a connection to the Google Copernicus hoax, which Google claimed to be developing. Supposedly, by 2069, Google Local will support all lunar businesses and addresses. Zooming to the closest level in Google Moon used to show that the moon was made of cheese.
• If the coordinates 63° 2' N, 29° 55' W are input into Google Earth, it would return a photo of the city of Rapture from BioShock. The image was later deleted, and it only read "The City of Rapture". However, this was also later removed.
• When searching for "Sweden" in Google Maps, instead of the geographical center (as for other countries and states), zooming in reveals that the map is centered some 200km away at Herräng, Sweden, and more specifically the Folkets Hus, which is the focal point of Herräng Dance Camp.
• If the coordinates for Point Nemo are input into Google Maps, a shadowed imprint shows up with a compass and the word "NEMO" in the ocean.
• In Google Earth, if one goes on Google Moon and go on the Apollo 17 tour, they will see Earth. If they get out of ground view and pause the video, then get on the other side of the Earth picture, they will see the moon with a face and a rocket in its eye, which is a reference to the 1902 French movie A Trip to the Moon.
• In Street View, on Earls Court Rd, London, United Kingdom, a TARDIS from the famous science fiction series Doctor Who is on display. Street View allows one to enter the TARDIS where it is "Bigger on the Inside" and explore the set actually used in the show.
• In Street View, if the time rewind button is clicked to view older footage of a particular area, the "Peg Man" changes to Doc Brown from Back to the Future.
• One can go inside certain parts of The White House on Google Maps, with street view.
• When navigating from Snowdon to Brecon Beacons, one can choose a Dragon. That takes 21 minutes.
• In Google Maps when going from Magdalene College to Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge, choosing public transportation, it will give "Punt" as an option.
• Also when going from Magdalen College to Wolfson College in Oxford, choosing public transportation, it will give "Punt" as an option as well.
• In the new version of Google Maps, going from Fort Augustus to Urquhart Castle in Scotland gives the option to travel by Loch Ness Monster.
• During the 2014 World Cup "Peg Man" displayed with a soccer uniform and ball.
• When going from Windsor Castle to Buckingham Palace, an option is given to travel by royal carriage.
• Dragging the Google Street View "Peg man" over Area 51 changes him to a UFO.
• When you look at the new BBC Broadcasting House you can look around the BBC Radio 1 & 1xtra floor

Google homepage

• In December 2009, Google added an easter egg on their homepage whereby clicking the "I'm Feeling Lucky" box with no text entered brings up a clock counting down the seconds until 2010. When it reached zero it displayed "Happy New Year" in fireworks.
• In December 2009 when typing in a search term including the word "Christmas" the line separating the sponsored links from the normal search is replaced with Christmas lights. Also, when typing in a search term including the word "Hanukkah" the line separating the sponsored links is replaced with a dreidel design.
• From May 21–23, 2010, Google replaced its usual homepage with a playable Google-style Pac-Man game to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The easter egg here was that by pressing Insert Coin (which replaced the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button) a second time, users could play a 2-player version of Pac-Man, starring both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man (moving in WASD) in the same game. This was a first in the history of Pac-Man by the creators of Google Pac-Man at the 2011 Google I/O conference. Google's game is still playable.
• On November 30, 2012 when clicking the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button with no text, it changed into an "I'm Feeling Stellar" button. When the Stellar button was pressed it brought the user to a Google Earth, Hubble Telescope image of light moving outwards from a stellar outburst. On December 19, 2012, hovering the mouse over the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button made it spin to a random selection that included not just "I'm Feeling Stellar" but also "I'm Feeling Hungry" (bringing up a search for restaurants), "I'm Feeling Artistic" (googleartproject.com), "I'm Feeling Puzzled" (agoogleaday.com), "I'm Feeling Wonderful" (World Wonders Project), "I'm Feeling Playful" (Google Doodles), and "I'm Feeling Trendy" (Google Trends).2014-I'm feeling generous
• Selecting the "I'm Feeling Lucky" without typing anything in, it will display past Google logos.
• Google offers services in many languages, including several uncommon ones like Swedish Chef's Bork bork bork, Pig Latin, Hacker (usually known as 1337sp34k), Elmer Fudd, Klingon and Pirate.
• Also, occasionally, the homepage on the Google Search mobile app will have a "stretchy" logo that one can drag and twist and it will eventually snap back to its original orientation.

Gmail

• On the Suggest a feature page for Gmail, it shows "Have Gmail do the laundry" as a suggestion.
• Above the list of emails in Gmail, there is normally an ad, except in the spam folder, where there is instead a link to a recipe containing the lunchmeat Spam. Also, if one visits trash, they get tips for recycling. This easter egg is no longer available.

Google Translate

• The English translate button uses a different font than the other buttons. This easter egg is no longer available
• Go to Google Translate and set 'translate from' to German. By writing certain sets of characters (ie. pz, bschk, fz) the translator will be changed to a "beatbox" mode. The tooltip which shows when the cursor is held over the speaker icon, will now show "beatbox" rather than "listen". Various combinations of consonants typed into the translator will result in a beatbox output rather than the usual speech narrator output. Note that there are other languages besides English which may be chosen for the beatbox mode to be operable. For example, Albanian, Armenian, German and Belarusian will work, but not Azerbajaini or Basque. This Easter Egg is no longer available.
• If one set the words to be translated from German, and set the translation to English, it used to say "Google is NOT stupid" when one typed "google ist dumm". Easter egg is no longer available

Android

• Since the Gingerbread (2.3) version of Google's Android operating system an easter egg containing a funny animation has been hidden. The easter egg can be accessed through the Settings application, in the About phone section, by repeatedly tapping the Android version section. The animation is different in every version of the OS.
  • In 2.3 (Gingerbread) an image of an Android Robot in a crowd of zombies is displayed. The image is entitled Zombie Art by Jack Larson.
  • In 3.x (Honeycomb) an image of an Android Bee is displayed.
  • In 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Google has made a parody of Nyan Cat. Instead of a cat 8-bit versions of Android Robots enveloped in an ice cream sandwich biscuit fly over the screen.
  • In 4.1 (Jelly Bean) A Big Jelly Bean will be displayed after repeatedly pressing Android Version. Then tapping the jelly bean will cause a smiley face to appear. Long-pressing the Big Jelly Bean will bring up a bunch of jellybeans, spread out across the screen, which the user can then fling around. Doing the same thing in 4.2 unlocks the jelly bean flinger as a Daydream.
  • In 4.2 (Jelly Bean) When enabling Developer Tools by tapping the Build Number five times in the About screen, a note will appear at the bottom of the screen telling the user how many taps of the Build Number that are left before he/she becomes a developer. Once tapping it five times, the note congratulates the user saying that "You are now a developer!". Tapping it again afterwards results in the text "No need, you are already a developer" appears. (No longer works in this version. See 4.3)
  • In 4.3 (Jelly Bean) An image of a red jelly bean appears. Tapping the screen causes a smiling face to appear on the bean while white text below reads  : "Android 4.3" (and below that) "JELLY BEAN". Repeatedly tapping the Jellybean will bring up a bunch of jellybeans, and possibly a candy cane, spread out across the screen, which the user can then fling around. This appears each time the user turns on the device from standby until the user exits. One can also tap the Build Number repeatedly, which will bring up a message saying "You are 5 taps away from being a developer". If he/she taps 5 more times, the message "Developer Mode turned on" will appear.
  • In 4.4 (KitKat) A Rotating letter "K" appears, which if continually tapped turns into the text "Android" in the styling of a KitKat logo. If the Android logo is then long-pressed a tile interface loads with icons from all previous versions of Android. It appears to be a mock of the Windows phone interface.
  • In Android "L" Beta (Preview/LPV79-81) The Webdriver Torso is shown. Random rectangles appear all over the screen, and they suddenly stop after 11 seconds. Then the slightly less fluorescent KitKat(4.4) Dessert case appears. During the Webdriver torso in the bottom left corner you can see a script that says "aqua.flv – Slide 000x". The webdriver torso is a reference to the Webdriver torso channel on YouTube.
  • In Android Lollipop Beta (Preview/LPX13D) A round circle is shown that if tapped becomes bigger until a white box comes from the bottom and makes it a lollipop. If the lollipop is tapped and then long pressed, a Flappy Bird clone, where the Android Robot is the bird, and lollipops are the pipes.

Android applications

• In Google+, if the device is shaken, snow will fall; if the device is shaken again it will save an animated GIF of the image with falling snow to the pictures directory.
• Searching for "let's go caroling" or "let's go carolling" on Google Now will result in an extra card which displays a list of Christmas carols. Select one and one's phone will play the music and show the words.
• On the Google Play Games app, if the player swipes the Konami Code, a box will appear with a B button, and A button, and a ► button. Pressing B, A and then the ► in that order unlocks a secret achievement called "All your games are belong to us.", a reference to the well known "All your base are belong to us" phrase.

Chromecast

The model numbers for the Chromecast unit and its power adapter read H2G2-42 and MST3K-US, respectively.

YouTube

• Holding down the left and up arrow while pausing or watching a video caused a game of Snake to launch. This could also be done by pressing the right arrow instead of the left one. This was actually a result of two steps; pressing the up arrow while a video is loading launches the game, while pressing the left arrow forces the video to rewind and load momentarily, thus allowing the game to launch. Since the 2013 update, this no longer works, and now only works by pressing down while buffering instead.
• During the course of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, YouTube had a button shaped like a football in certain videos that plays a recurring vuvuzela sound throughout the video.
• During December 2011, a button was added which, when clicked, caused animated snow to fall from the top of the video.
• A 500 Internal server error will cause this message to appear: "Sorry, something went wrong. A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation. Please report this incident to customer service. Also, please include the following information in your report:" followed by an error report encoded in Base64.
• Adding "&wadsworth=1" to a video URL will apply Wadsworth's constant, skipping the first 30% of the video.
• If a user attempts to click their own "Subscribe" button, a mouseover will appear stating "No need to subscribe to yourself!". This feature is only visible in public view.
• On June 17, 2011, the scroll bar for the Nyan Cat video was replaced by Nyan cat.
• Putting in the search box "do the harlem shake" will cause the page to do the Harlem Shake. It can be muted and paused.
• On April 15, 2013, in occasion of the VHS 57th anniversary, YouTube added a tape mode button in the video player. When pushed the button, the video will take a degraded videotape look. Tape mode is still available, adding "&vhs=1&nohtml5=1" at the end of the video URL.
• As of late May 2014, the view count on Gangnam Style features Psy. When clicked on, mini figures are dancing to commemorate reaching 2 billion views.
• At the beginning of the robots.txt file, "robots.txt file for YouTube Created in the distant future (the year 2000) after the robotic uprising of the mid 90's which wiped out all humans." is commented out. This might be a reference to the Flight of the Conchords song "Robots" (also known as "Humans are Dead").
• In occasion of the first YouTube Geek Week:
  • Putting in a search query that starts with "/ geekweek" will change the layout of the search page, reminiscent of a Unix terminal.
  • Searching for "use the force, luke" will put a wavy effect on the results, which periodically fly around the screen.
  • Searching for "beam me up, scotty" will echo the classic Star Trek effect by 'beaming' the videos onto the results page.
  • Searching for "fibonacci" will arrange the results in a tiled effect in accordance with the mathematical sequence of the same name.
  • Typing "1337" while viewing a video page used to cause the comments to appear in leet.
  • A small 'pow' button was added on selected Geek Week videos. When pushed it made the videos appear as if in a hand drawn comic book.
  • Clicking to the side of the video and typing "1980" while viewing a video page will start a game of Missile Command. The game ends after the video is finished playing and if one allows too many asteroids to hit the bottom of the video, it "breaks".
  • Searching for "ponies" or "bronies" will make My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ponies appear on the screen. Also, searching the names of many characters from the show will cause the top bar to become the same color as the character (e.g. "Rainbow Dash"). This Easter Egg is no longer available.
• Searching for "doge meme" on YouTube changes the font on the search result page to pastel color Comic Sans.
• If a user right clicks on a YouTube video it gives one of the options in the Context menu is "stats for nerds"
• If a user searches the song "Glub Glub Water Dance" water droplets will fall across the screen as the song starts playing.
• If you search the term "finish lining" a ribbon will appear on the left side of the results, and the videos will slide towards that line.
• When searching "clocking" a stick figure will appear on screen, rotating his arm clockwise.
• When searching "fibonacci" the search page will transform into golden squares with the size varying by the Fibonacci numbers. The rectangles will be filled by the video thumbnails and a spirals will be traced around the rectangles.
• Searching for "Webdriver Torso" will return the results but with a red background and a blue rectangle around some videos. It also says "aqua.flv – Slide 000[0-9]" at the bottom left of the page. This is a reference to the Webdriver Torso mystery.

Other

• Typing in the Nyan Cat emoticon (9^^__^^9) on Google+ chat makes the text turn into an animated Nyan Cat.
• Pressing control-shift-y in Picasa will cause a teddybear to appear on the screen.
• If one sets the iGoogle theme to the "Beach" option, then at 3:14 am every morning, the Loch Ness Monster surfaces for 1-minute, then at 3:15 dives back under. The reason for the timing of 3:14 is rumoured to be a tribute to the number pi. Additional 3:14 eggs include the "Seasonal Scape" showing off the Northern Lights, the "City Scape" with UFOs, the "Spring Scape" with a monster, the "Sweet Dreams" with the stars aligning to the shape of the symbol pi, and the "Tea House" that has spirits in the mist.
• In Chrome, Google's Web browser, entering "about:internets" into the address bar brings up a copy of the Windows Screen Saver 3D Pipes, with the title "Don't Clog the Tubes". In the event that this does not occur due to the fact that the screensaver file does not exist in the system, the browser will instead display a gray screen with the title "The Tubes are Clogged!" This has been removed as of the 2.0.169.1 release.
• The Google Gears Firefox add-on description line reads "These are the gears that power the tubes! :-)". Google Chrome's gears.dll's description also reads "These are the gears that power the tubes! :-)".
  • The above two easter eggs allude to former Senator Ted Stevens' "series of tubes" speech on the Senate floor.
• In Google Chrome's Incognito mode, when the user opens a new tab it will come up with a message that says:

 Be wary of:
 Surveillance by secret agents
 People standing behind you

• • This was removed as of release 33.0.1750.146.
• In Google's iPhone and iPod touch search application, swiping downwards (past About) repeatedly in the Settings interface brings up a hidden menu item, called Bells and Whistles, allowing customization of colors, sounds and more within the app. This is now standard on the newest update.
• In Google Voice, once a text-message being typed exceeds 320 characters (2 x 160-per-SMS), the countdown changes to "Really?"
• In Google Docs, within a spreadsheet, pressing Shift+F12 brings up a message: "Dragon slain! Congratulations, you've slain the dragon!".
• Also in Google Docs, populating spreadsheet cells in row A1-E1 with the letters "P","R,"I","D","E" will make the columns of the spreadsheet be in the colors of the gay pride flag.
• Going to "heart" gives a Java applet with an interactive jumping heart under the Google logo of the search page. The applet was made in 2000 by Ken Perlin.
• In Google I/O 2013 page, can click letter I or O to input password, for example, when input OIIIIIII then press enter will enter a page with ASCII code.
• In Google Glass, tap Settings -> Device info -> View licenses, then tap Google Glass's touchpad 9 times, will show Tap Meet Team option, then tap last time, will show Google Glass's develop team's photo.
• On Google Play, if the user presses the search icon without entering text into the box, "Unicorns" will be automatically searched.
• On Gmail, if the background is set to "Ninja" press SHIFT+CRTL+F1 and the ninja will send an automatic email saying 'Hello' to everyone in the user's contacts.
• Any photograph with Christmas lights uploaded to Google+ will be turned into an animated GIF, showing sparkling lights.
• In Google Nose, higlighting what appears to be gibberish (under section "coming to your senses") shows "smelling is believing".

April Fools' hoaxes

2000

Google's first April Fools' Day hoax, the MentalPlex hoax, invited users to project a mental image of what they wanted to find whilst staring at an animated gif. Several humorous error messages were then displayed on the search results page, all listed below:

1. Error 001: Weak or no signal detected. Upgrade transmitter and retry.
2. Error 666: Multiple transmitters detected. Silence voices in your head and try again.
3. Error 01: Brainwaves received in analog. Please re-think in digital.
4. Error 8P: Unclear on whether your search is about money or monkeys. Please try again.
5. Error 005: Searching on this topic is prohibited under international law.
6. Error CKR8: That information is protected under the National Security Act.
7. Error 144: That information was lost with the Martian Lander. Please try again.
8. Error 006: Query is unclear. Try again after removing hat, glasses and shoes.
9. Error 008: Interference detected. Remove aluminum foil and remote control devices.
10. Error: Insufficient conviction. Please clap hands 3 times, while chanting "I believe" and try again.
11. Error: MentalPlex(tm) has determined that this is not your final answer. Please try again.

• MentalPlex

2002

Google reveals the technology behind its PageRank Systems—PigeonRank. Google touts the benefits of this cost-effective and efficient means of ranking pages and reassures readers that there is no animal cruelty involved in the process. The article makes many humorous references and puns based on computer terminology and how Google PageRank really works, (for example, a chart showing the pigeons' consumption of linseed and flax, represented as "Lin/Ax Kernels," a pun on the Linux kernel).

• Pigeon Rank

2004

Fictitious job opportunities for a research center on the moon. Luna/X (a pun to Linux and the Latin word for moon, as well as a reference to both the Windows XP visual style and Mac OS X) is the name of a new operating system they claimed to have created for working at the research center.

• Google Job Opportunities: Google Copernicus Center is hiring

2005

Google Gulp, a fictitious drink, was announced by Google in 2005. According to the company, this beverage would optimize one's use of the Google search engine by increasing the drinker's intelligence. It was claimed this boost was achieved through real-time analysis of the user's DNA and carefully tailored adjustments to neurotransmitters in the brain (a patented technology termed Auto-Drink; as the "Google Gulp FAQ" suggests, partly through MAO inhibition). The drink was said to come in "4 great flavors": Glutamate Grape (glutamic acid), Sugar-Free Radical (free radicals), Beta Carroty (beta carotene), and Sero-Tonic Water (serotonin).

This hoax was probably intended as a parody of Google's then invite-only email service called Gmail. Although ostensibly free, the company claimed the beverage could only be obtained by returning the cap of a Google Gulp bottle to a local grocery store: a causal loop. In the Google Gulp FAQ, Google replies to the observation "I mean, isn't this whole invite-only thing kind of bogus?" by saying "Dude, it's like you've never even heard of viral marketing."

• Google Gulp
• Google Gulp FAQ

2006

Google Romance logo

On April Fool's Day 2006, Google Romance was announced on the main Google search page with the introduction, "Dating is a search problem. Solve it with Google Romance." It pretends to offer a "Soulmate Search" to send users on a "Contextual Date". A parody of online dating, it had a link for "those who generally favor the 'throw enough stuff at the wall' approach to online dating" to Post multiple profiles with a bulk upload file, you sleaze in addition to Post your Google Romance profile. Clicking on either of these gave an error page, which explained that it was an April Fool's joke and included links to previous April Fool's jokes.

• Google Romance
• Google Romance FAQ
• Google Romance Tour

2007

Gmail Paper

At about 10:00 pm, Pacific time (where Google has its headquarters) on March 30, 2007, Google changed the login page for Gmail to announce a new service called Gmail Paper. The service offered to allow users of Google's free webmail service to add e-mails to a "Paper Archive", which Google would print (on "96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum") and mail via traditional post. The service would be free, supported by bold, red advertisements printed on the back of the printed messages. Image attachments would also be printed on high-quality glossy paper, though MP3 and WAV files would not be printed. The page detailing more information about the service features photographs of Ian Spiro and Carrie Kemper, current employees of Google. Also featured are Product Marketing Managers of Gmail Anna-Christina Douglas, and Shane Lawrence.

• Gmail Paper Index
• Gmail Paper Announcement
• Gmail Paper Program Policies

Google TiSP

Google TiSP (short for Toilet Internet Service Provider) was a fictitious free broadband service supposedly released by Google. This service would make use of a standard toilet and sewage lines to provide free Internet connectivity at a speed of 8 Mbit/s (2 Mbit/s upload) (or up to 32 Mbit/s with a paid plan). The user would drop a weighted end of a long, Google-supplied fiber-optic cable in their toilet and flush it. Around 60 minutes later, the end would be recovered and connected to the Internet by a "Plumbing Hardware Dispatcher (PHD)". The user would then connect their end to a Google-supplied wireless router and run the Google-supplied installation media on a Windows XP or Windows Vista computer ("Mac and Linux support coming soon"). Alternatively, a user could request a professional installation, in which Google would deploy nanobots through the plumbing to complete the process. The free service would be supported by "discreet DNA sequencing" of "personal bodily output" to display online ads that relate to culinary preferences and personal health. Google also referenced the diet coke-and-Mentos reaction in their FAQ: "If you're still experiencing problems, drop eight mints into the bowl and add a two-liter bottle of diet soda."

• Google TiSP
• Google TiSP FAQ
• Installation page
• Press Release page
• Not found page – April fools version

2008

Blogger "Google Weblogs (beta)"

The Blogger dashboard featured an announcement for Google Weblogs, or "GWeblogs," or "Gblogs," the next revolution in personal publishing. Features include algorithms putting the user's best content at the top of the user's blog (rather than publishing by reverse chronology), automatically populating the blog's sidebar with the most relevant content, posting directly into Google search results for maximum visibility, blog headers refreshed with images from Google's team of artists for anniversaries of a scientific achievement (similar to Google Doodle), and automatic content generation ('Unsure of what to post about? Just click "I'm Feeling Lucky" and we'll "take care" of the rest!')

The announcement was followed by a link to a video tour of the product, which actually led to Tay Zonday's cover of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."

• Blogger Buzz: The Official Buzz from Blogger at Google: Announcing Google Weblogs (beta)

Dajare

Google launches Dajare in Japan (google.co.jp), with the mission of "organizing the world's laughter."

gDay

Google announced gDay in Australia, a new beta search technology that will search web pages 24 hours before they are created. The name is a play on the phrase "g'day".

• gDay

Gmail Custom Time

Gmail's sign-in page and a banner at the top of each Gmail inbox announced a new feature, called Gmail Custom Time, that would allow its users to "pre-date" their messages and choose to have the message appear as "read" or "unread". The new feature uses the slogan "Be on time. Every time."

Around 11:00 pm EST March 31, 2008, on the newer and older version of Gmail, but not in the basic HTML version, in the upper right corner, next to Settings, a link appeared labeled, "New! Gmail Custom Time". The link led to a 404 error until April 1, when it led to the full Gmail Custom Time hoax page. Clicking any of the three links at the bottom of the page brought the user to a page stating that Gmail Custom time was, in fact, their April Fool's Day joke.

Google Book Search Scratch and Sniff

Google Book Search has a new section allowing users to "scratch and sniff" certain books. Users are asked to "...please place your nose near the monitor and click 'Go'", which then "loads odors". When clicking on "Help", users are redirected to a page in a book that describes the origins of April Fools' Day.

• Inside Google Book Search Blog: "Google Book Search now smells better"

Google Calendar is Feeling Lucky

Google added the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button to its calendar feature. When a user tries to create a new event, the user was given the regular option of entering the correct details and hitting "Create Event", and also the new option of "I'm Feeling Lucky" which would set the user up with an evening date with, among others, Matt Damon, Eric Cartman, Tom Cruise, Jessica Alba, Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Anna Kournikova, Johnny Depp, George W. Bush, or Lois Griffin.

Google Manpower Search

Google launches Manpower Search (谷歌人肉搜索) in China (google.cn). The feature was presented as being powered by 25 million volunteers who conducted searches around the clock. When the user entered a keyword, volunteers would search any possible answers from a mass of paper documents as well as online resources. The user was expected to get the search result within 32 seconds. The "search" button would avoid the user's cursor.

Google Talk

Google announced plans to, on April 22, 2008 (Earth Day), shorten all conversations over Google Talk thereby reducing the energy required to transmit chats in an effort to reduce carbon output.

• Google Talk Goes Green

Google Wake Up Kit

Google launched their "Wake Up Kit" as a calendar notification option.

The 'wake up' notification uses several progressively more annoying alerts to wake one up. First it will send an SMS message to their phone. If that fails, more coercive means will be used. The kit includes an industrial-sized bucket and is designed to be connected to their water main for automatic filling. In addition, a bed-flipping device is included for forceful removal from their sleeping quarters.

Virgle

Main article: Virgle

Virgle Logo

Google announced a joint project with the Virgin Group to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. This operation has been named Project Virgle. The announcement includes videos of Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Group) as well as Larry Page and Sergey Brin (the founders of Google) on YouTube, talking about Virgle. An "application" to join the settlement includes questions such as:

I am a world-class expert in:

1. Physics
2. First Aid
3. Engineering
4. Guitar Hero III

After the user submitted the application, the site notifies the user that the user is not fit for space, or that the user's application is fine and "all you have to do is submit your video" [as a response to their video on YouTube]. As a result, an open source Virgle group has been established, OpenVirgle. On the FAQ page, the final question is "Okay, come on – seriously. Is this Virgle thing for real?" The reply links to a page that tells the user it's an April Fool's joke, and then mentions that the user "Dragged us out of our lovely little fantasy world, to crush all our hopes and dreams."

• Virgle Application Page – Virgle: The Adventure of Many Lifetimes

Yogurt

Yogurt

Google's Orkut displayed its name as yogurt, Google Bang, Inc.

YouTube

On April 1, 2008, all featured videos on the UK and Australian homepages, and later, all international homepages, of Google-owned YouTube linked to a video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up", causing all users of the website who clicked on featured videos to be Rickrolled.

This was the first year YouTube participated in Google's April Fool's Day tradition. If you search "Harlem Shake" the YouTube sign in the top-left corner will start doing the Harlem shake and when it says "Do the Harlem Shake" then everything else on the screen will, too.

2009

Google runs on Microsoft Windows IIS/3.0

google.com.au reported as if it ran on IIS/3.0 and google.com on Apache/0.8.4 (on Linux).

CADIE

The announcement of CADIE was made on 31 March 2009 11:59 pm by the CADIE Team, not on April 1. The announcement on the Google blog was made at 2009/04/01 12:01:00 am.

The introduction page and all of the references to CADIE in Google's Products were taken down on April 2, replaced with a message stating'

We apologize for the recent disruption(s) to our service(s).

Please stand by while order is being restored.

However the technology page describing the technical capabilities of the software remained at: Technical Description

When using Google Books or GMail, a user would come across an announcement dated March 31, 2009 at 11:59:59, declaring a new "Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity". CADIE is also mentioned on the gBall FAQ page: "Google's new CADIE technology will interpret the data obtained from each ball to provide useful tips to owners". There was also a link on Google's Homepage for CADIE, and a blog entry in Google's official blog.

CADIE technology is also used to generate "senryu" (a type of Japanese poem similar to haiku) based on search terms for certain Japanese queries.

The Google Search homepage had a link to the CADIE announcement, stating that "For several years now a small research group has been working on some challenging problems in the areas of neural networking, natural language and autonomous problem-solving. Last fall this group achieved a significant breakthrough: a powerful new technique for solving reinforcement learning problems, resulting in the first functional global-scale neuro-evolutionary learning cluster." The page links to the blog below.

On mobile devices, a link shows up to Brain Search, which uses CADIE technology to "index your brain". This is what it all looks like from a mobile device.

Gmail

When one is using the Gmail service, they will notice that it has a new option, named "Gmail Autopilot" in which the service would analyze an email. On that page it says under the FAQ section,"You can adjust tone, typo propensity, and preferred punctuation from the Autopilot tab under Settings." However, if a person logs into their Gmail account and goes under the Settings tab they will notice that there is no Autopilot tab. The program could be customised to contain certain types of grammatical or spelling errors, as well as complexity and length of the sentence. It also has a way of responding to relationship related messages, such as if someone spoke aggressively, even in a humorous way, the system would "terminate relationship."

gBall

Google Australia announced the development of a ball that will change how Australian Football is played the world over. The newest football technology—"gBall" —is a prototype ball for use in the Australian Football League with GPS.

Google Australia announced ("New! Get the newest football technology – gBall.") that they are developing a prototype ball for use in the Australian Football League with GPS. Apparently, the ball will measure the location, force, and torque of a kick, and "vibrate if player agents or talent scouts want to speak to you". Google claimed that the ball will cost $10 with a cost-per-kick set of payments in addition to the basic fee.

Google Analytics

A blog post to the Google Analytics Blog investigates the analytics reports of CADIEs activities.

Google Maps

Google's CADIE has a recommended places to visit using Google Maps. Viewing "CADIE's recommended places for humans" one will see each of her suggested places listed, that, when clicked, displays a photo and humorous commentary.

There is also a "CADIE's recommended places for humans" link in Google Maps, which leads to the "Panda Mapplet" and includes several marked locations with "CADIE's" commentary. Under Redmond WA a link is listed which will rick roll the viewer.

Blogger

CADIE's personal blog/homepage

Google Chrome with 3D

Screenshot of Wikipedia.org on April 2, 2009 using Chrome "3-D". Note the red/blue glasses toggle switch at the top of the browser

A home of Google Mail was offered rendering web pages in Anaglyph 3D, "powered" by CADIE. A 3D effect was actually possible with this browser, but it only made the window appear to be sunken into the monitor.

• Introducing Google Chrome with 3D

Google Earth Powered by CADIE

Google announced a new Google Earth powered by CADIE, which claimed to allow the user to see ocean terrain imagery from the world's most advanced submarine, explore the deep sea, soar with CADIE in real time, view CADIE's Recommended Summer Vacation, and chat with CADIE, among other options.

Google Code

The Google Code Search homepage is featuring LOLCODE examples.

CADIE is set to write code by itself based on specified features; however all that is returned is bad code or witty criticisms of the user's request and choice of programing language, recommending the use of INTERCAL.

CADIE's source code was supposedly uploaded to Google Code, but she changed her mind and replaced it with a "fun program" consisting of 31 lines of INTERCAL. When executed, this program prints out the message "I do not shake

Google Book Search

CADIE recommends some books at Google Book Search homepage. Also, when viewing a book, there is a Generate book report button. When clicked it says "Gotcha! It's April Fools' Day! Sorry, but you'll have to actually read the book yourself."

Google Docs on Demand

Google has announced new Google Docs features enhanced by CADIE
Add subliminal messages and images to documents.
If a person makes a new presentation and looks for the subliminal message and image buttons under the insert menu they will notice it is not there.

Google Mobile

Google Mobile has a link to "Brain Search". The instructions are to "Put phone to forehead for brain indexing" and "Think your query". When the user clicks "Try Now", a page loads with "Brain indexing" status. When indexing is complete, a button comes up with "search me". By clicking this button, the user is directed to fake search results. There are several possible results:

• What's the name of that woman by the window? She's my boss's boss, but, oh man, is it Suzanne? Susan? Blanche?
• Should I order the pizza? I don't remember if it makes me gassy.
• Wow, cute guy. Should I go up to him?
• Why is everyone looking at me so strangely?
• When is Mom's birthday? I should send her a card.

Google Knol

Knol was updated so that all of the featured articles were about Artificial Intelligence, with a message from CADIE indicating that this "improvement" was for the good of mankind.

HTTP Headers

In keeping with the CADIE theme Google has altered the server HTTP header to contain the name of various AI entities, including HAL 9000, WOPR, and GLaDOS.

Other server HTTP headers found were IIS/Bob (a reference to Microsoft Bob), IIS/Clippy (a reference to Clippy), IIS/3.0, Netscape iPlanet, Chrome/3.0, Google Operating System (BETA), CERN/3.0 (a reference to CERN HTTPd), Apple (a reference to Apple II), IRIX, MCP, Apache/0.8.4, Conficker, and Skynet.

Oil Tanker Data Center

During the last minutes of Google's Data Center Efficiency Summit, Urs Hoelzle presented in a "special topic": Google had bought an oil tanker, the "M/S Sergey", where Google's data center containers were being submerged in oil tanks to enable extremely high-efficiency cooling. The presentation can be seen in the video on YouTube, and includes slightly customized Wikipedia images from the article Oil tanker, including a retouched photo of commercial oil tanker AbQaiq and the oil tankers side view graphic.

Even though Google did apply for a US patent to build data centers on cargo ships and oil cooling is an existing technology, summit attendee James Hamilton believed this topic to be an April Fools joke. The ship's name "M/S Sergey" is also likely to be a pun on Google's co-founder Sergey Brin.

2010

Google and Topeka, Kansas, Switch Places

In early March, the city of Topeka, Kansas, temporarily changed its name to Google in an attempt to capture a spot in Google's new broadband/fiber-optics project. Then, on April 1 (April Fools' Day), Google jokingly announced that it would be changing its name to Topeka, to "honor that moving gesture" and changed its home page to say Topeka in place of the Google logo.

Google Books available in Anachrome 3D

Google books introduced a feature which allows any book to be read in 3D, assuming the viewer has appropriate glasses. It was enabled by clicking the "View in 3D" button in the menu bar above the book. This feature was removed after April 1, but on June 29, 2010, Google announced its restoration. Google also released the latest form of 3D glasses, similar to the pairs one would use today when seeing a film.

Store anything on Google Docs

Google announced that Google Docs will have the capacity to upload anything, including physical objects like keys, remote controls, etc. The site declared that one could use this to find items like keys using CTRL-F and send objects around the globe by "uploading" and "downloading" them, at the low price of $0.10 per kg.

Search results generated in different units

Google's search results page displayed the time taken to load the results in different units from seconds. Several of these are pop culture references, as with 1.21 gigawatts, while others refer to slang:

• at warp X.XX
• 0.XX centibeats
• 0.XX centons
• X.XXe-15
• 0.0X femtogalactic years
• 1.21 gigawatts
• X.XX hertz
• XX.XX jiffies
• 0.XX microfortnights
• 0.XX microweeks
• 0.XX nanocenturies
• 11.90 parsecs
• 0.XXe+43 Planck times
• 23.00 skidoo
• 2.00 shakes of a lamb's tail
• 0.XX times the velocity of an unladen female swallow
• dhaka time

YouTube ASCII video filter

The logo of YouTube was overlaid with ASCII text repeating the character "1". The YouTube logo was a reference to some videos having a new quality setting, namely "TEXTp". According to a notice underneath the videos, viewing the video with this quality setting enabled allowed YouTube to save one US dollar ($1) per second on bandwidth costs. The notice also remarked on the source of this new "feature," wishing the reader a happy April Fool's Day.

However in accordance with the announcement, the video quality on many videos was indeed able to be set to 'TEXTp' and video output was rendered through an ASCII filter. This feature was removed on April 2, 2010.

Animal Translator BETA

Google placed a link on the main page, advertising a new Google Animal Translator service to add to their Language Translator service. Clicking the link would take the user to a page advertising an app for Android phones for the translator, with the tagline being "Bridging the gap between animals and humans".

• Google Translate for Animals

Once the app is installed on an Android phone, it provides some amusing translations depending on the animal selected.

Standard Voicemail Mode for Google voice

Google placed a New! Standard Voicemail Mode link in the Google Voice main page.

Evil Bit

Google added an "evil bit" to their AJAX APIs, to aid in generating an appropriate response to nefarious deeds. If an evildoer is "detected", the code returns with, among other things, "For Great Justice", a quotation from the video game Zero Wing. Conversely, setting the evil bit to 'false' will return the Google Search results for 'April Fools' encoded in JSON.

Wave Wave Notifications

Google Wave can be set to have a human being wave at by the user to notify the user of a change to a Google Wave. The user can also select the volume of the human notifier from a list of silent, medium, loud and vibrate. They can also select which human notifier they want, including Ashton Kutcher, Dr. Wave, Grandma, Werner Heisenberg, and Puppy. Clicking on any of the links on the new notifications page redirected the user to a Google help page, alerting them that it was an April Fools' joke, but also that email notifications are possible.

Google Annotations Gallery

The Google Annotations Gallery ("GAG") is an exciting new Java open source library that provides a rich set of annotations for developers to express themselves.

Japanese Input System

Google's proposed keyboard includes a single key for each Japanese character.

Disemvoweling on Google Mail

The English-language home page of Google Mail, including its logo, was disemvowelled. A post on the GMail blog was created to address the issue, claiming that they had encountered a server error which firstly made the data centers fail to render the vowel 'a' before failing to render the vowels, and were working on the problem. They also claimed to be investigating whether the letter 'y' was impacted.

Chrome Sounds (Google Chrome Extension)

Google created a new extension, Chrome Sounds, after "months deep in psychoacoustic models, the Whittaker-Nyquist-Kotelnikov-Shannon sampling theorem, Franssen effects, Shepard-Risset Tones, and 11.1 surround sound research". The extension provides audio for actions performed within the Google Chrome web browser. For a few interesting sounds, try going to different countries' localized Google pages. The full list of sounds that this extension makes can be found by going to the Chrome Tools menu, choosing Extensions, turning on developer mode, and viewing the source of the extension.

Google Analytics Goes Back to Hits

Google decided that hits really is the only metric for tracking web site usage.

Life size Picasa

Google offered an option which allows the user to print life-size cardboard cutouts of all of their photos.

ReaderAdvantage Program

Google announced a reward program for Google Reader, known as ReaderAdvantage™, in which they would assign points to users depending on the number of items read on Google Reader. The rewards were different badges, which, on visiting the ReaderAdvantage™ page and clicking on the enroll button, shows this page.

Wingdings in AdSense

Wingdings was announced as a new font option for AdSense users.

2011

YouTube

A button was added to the video player which, when clicked, would apply a video filter to the video and replace the audio with a recording of Rhapsody Rag, a piece typically played as background music to silent movies in 1911. If subtitles are enabled when watching the video, intertitles will be displayed containing the dialogue. The upload page also featured an option to "send a horse-drawn carriage to me to pick [the video] up". In addition, a few videos were made parodying several viral videos, such as the "Flugelhorn Feline".

Gmail Motion

A body gesture oriented way to send and view mail through Gmail. In the "How it Works" Section it reads "Gmail Motion uses your computer's built-in webcam and Google's patented spatial tracking technology to detect your movements and translate them into meaningful characters and commands. Movements are designed to be simple and intuitive for people of all skill levels." An overview video presented by Gmail product manager Paul McDonald explains Gmail Motion's "language of movements that replaces type entirely" while a mime artist performs the full-body Gmail actions.

Upon clicking the "Try Gmail Motion" button, it explains to the user about the prank, and says "Gmail Motion doesn't actually exist. At least not yet..." The page also offers a preview of the features of Google Docs Motion.

• Gmail Motion
• Google Docs Motion

Google Docs Motion

Using Gmail Motion's technology, Google has promoted the BETA version of Google Docs Motion which "will introduce a new way to collaborate – using your body" in their Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Drawings, and Document List tools.

Autocompleter Job

A YouTube video was posted by Google showing a "Google Autocompleter" employee explaining the job. Also, a job opening was featured for an "Autocompleter." Clicking on the "Add to job cart" or "View cart" links to a Google search for "google april fools day pranks".

• Autocompleter Job

Chromercise

Google Chrome launched a new website called "Chromercise", which aims to increase people's hands' strength and dexterity while browsing the web faster, and also allowing their hands to fit "into sleeker, sexier gloves". On the website, they also gave away free Google Chrome finger sweatbands for a limited time.

Japan

Due to the large-scale devastation from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, in lieu of a traditional April Fools hoax, Google Japan featured many never-before featured drawings from its 2009 Google Doodle competition, themed "What I Love About Japan" drawn by Japanese schoolchildren, saying "We promised that only the top prize winners would be featured on Google, but as this is the only day where lies are forgiven, we have obtained the other children's understanding." As a small concession to the usual festivities, the Google Blog mentioned, "This year's April Fools joke has been postponed until next year. Next year's April Fool's joke has been postponed until the year following that."

Google 穿越搜索

Google teleport 穿越搜索 is a service that allows user to time travel. The site is written in Simplified Chinese. It claims that it can take the user on a journey through time and space in first-person.

Search

Searching for "helvetica", "comic sans", or "comic sans ms" temporarily changed the entire webpage's font to Comic Sans.

Comic Sans for Everyone

Announcement that Comic Sans will become the default font for all Google products. Google also created a Google Chrome extension which changes the font to Comic Sans on all webpages.

Google Cow

The Google Body homepage appeared as Google Cow, where a cow's body can be examined in 3D. There was a toggle button that switched to human models.

Google Maps

Google Maps used to display a dragon in Germany's biggest forest, the 'Pfälzer Wald'. Also a shark in the Netherlands' lake called IJmeer, East of Amsterdam was featured. When viewed in Earth Mode or Google Earth. These can be rendered in 3D. There is also a narwhal in the Thames in London, outside Millbank Tower. The Loch Ness monster also makes an appearance in 'Loch Ness'. A giant red lobster sits atop the Zakim Bridge in Boston. Also a pink elephant at "Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA".

Google Translate for Animals

Google UK purportedly offered a version of Google Translate which could be used to talk with animals.

Google Voice

Google Voice has a new function that makes users spell out common words like "embarrassed", "dizzy" or "Czechoslovakia", before they connect the user's call in order to prevent embarrassing messages.

Adwords

AdWords announced a new format, Google Blimp Ads, that would be flying over major cities starting in May.

Google I/O

The announced sessions for the Google I/O conference for software developers were changed to include talks featuring technologies from the late 1990s.

Contoso has gone Google

On the Google Enterprise Blog, Google announced that Contoso (a fictional company used by Microsoft in Microsoft's product documentation materials) has switched from Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. The post included references to 2007's TiSP and 2011's Gmail Motion jokes.

Meow Me Now Mobile

On the Google Mobile Blog, Google announced a new mobile-based search option for Android and iOS devices which locates kittens near the user's current location.

Blogger

The blogging service Blogger announced that it was being acquired by Google, even though it has been part of Google since 2003.

2012

Google Maps 8-bit for NES

Google partnered with Square Enix and announced a "NES version" of their Google Maps service, to be released "as soon as possible". The version would be released in NES and Famicom versions (the Famicom version would feature voice input by using the second controller's microphone). In the meantime, Google added a "Quest" layer to the Maps website, which features 8-bit tile-based graphics and sprites on landmarks, both made by Google and by Square Enix (using the Dragon Quest game series' graphics).

Improved Japanese Input System

Google's proposed improved keyboard based on the experience with Japanese input system from 2010.

The YouTube Collection

YouTube added a small disc on the right side of the YouTube logo, which when clicked leads to a page about a service called "The YouTube Collection". It claimed to be an at-home experience of YouTube and made everything from videos to comments physical, including a postal mail commenting service. At the bottom of the website, it had a fake shipping form which after filled said "Your order has been placed. Due to heavy demand, your anticipated delivery date is: JUNE 16, 2045" and in small grey text at the bottom said "Also, April Fools."

Google Street Roo

Google announced they will deploy a 'roo force' of more than 1,000 big red kangaroos who will capture up to 98% of the Australian bush within the next three years.

Underwater Image Search

An underwater image search experience developed by Google China.

Google Weather Control

Google added weather control to its weather search.

Chrome Multitask Mode

Chrome Multitask Mode makes it possible to browse the web with two or more mice at the same time. Clicking the "Try Multitask Mode" button initially creates one fake mouse that moves around the screen, and over time adds several more and at one point a giant cursor even appears. Clicking the "Exit Multitask Mode" button shows an April Fools message.

Elegantizr

Google introduced the Elegantizr framework. To use it, one just needs to insert the following line of HTML:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.google.com/landing/elegantizr/elegantizr.css" />

Upon insertion, every text begins with APRIL FOOL and an emoticon, before moving on to the regular text.

Piano & Guitar Analytics Playback

Google Analytics allows the user to playback their website statistics on piano and guitar.

Google Racing

Google announced a partnership with NASCAR to help create self-driving vehicles to compete in stock car racing. The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google's site was also changed to "I'm Steering Lucky." Google racing is available at http://www.google.com/racing/

Gmail Tap

Gmail Tap for Android and iOS doubles typing speed with a revolutionary new keyboard. The system involves a keyboard with three keys: Morse code "dash" and "dot", and a spacebar (along with backspace). Shortly before midnight, on March 31, 2012 added Gmail Tap – Android and iOS Application utilizing Morse Code instead of onscreen keyboard. Selecting Download App for Your Phone produces the message: "Oops! Gmail Tap is a bit too popular right now. We suggest you try downloading it again on April 2nd." Clicking the Retry button will produce "It's still April 1st, 2012. You'll have to wait till April 2nd to download Gmail Tap." After clicking the retry button the page will say "Still trying to download Gmail Tap? Check back next April 1st to see if it is available...you never know.". On Gmail's Facebook page, they also posted about a Morse keyboard.

Really Advanced Search

A link on the bottom of search results pages titled Really Advanced Search takes users to a search page where they can filter their search results by, among other things, subtext or innuendo, page font (Comic Sans or Wingdings), loanword origin, or future modification date. Clicking on the "Advanced Search" button to actually run the search query redirects users to search results for "April Fools".

Click-to-Teleport Extensions

Click-to-Teleport extensions allow potential customers to instantly teleport to the business location directly from a search ad in a matter of seconds. This teleportation technology shortens the "online-to-store" conversion funnel by providing searchers with an easy way to visit any business and convert. On average, advertisers using Click-to-Teleport extensions have seen their offline sales increase by 3600%.

Go Ro

Solving the increasingly frustrating problem of accessing mobile internet on rotary phones across the US, Google is announcing GoRo. GoRo aims to fix the problem that 100% of people using rotary phones have trouble accessing a website

Jargon-Bot for Google Apps

Jargon-Bot instantly recognizes business terms and provides real-time, in-product jargon translation into plain English.

Google TV Click

Innovative remote control application for phone and tablet lets users interact with shows and movies as they are playing.

Google Voice for Pets

Google introduced special Voice Communication Collars that fit around animal necks and use a series of sensors to record audio directly from animal vocal cords. Using a WiFi network, audio messages are uploaded to Google Voice within seconds. Alternately, a tiny micro-LED emitter built into the collar can project a keyboard onto the floor, so the animal pet can tap its front paws to send text messages. To understand animal language, Google took their voicemail transcription engine and combined it with millions of adorable pet videos from the Internet, training it to translate cat meows or dog growls into English.

$1 Google Offer for Parking Karma

Google Offer for unlimited good parking karma $1 takes the stress and guesswork out of finding a good spot by providing the following service:

1. prime spots when you need them,
2. repels parking tickets,
3. includes 1 space buffer on each side,
4. shopping cart protection plan,
5. no parallel parking for first 6 months.

Canine Staffing Team

Google revealed that dogs at Google offices go through the same detailed recruitment and hiring process by Canine Staffing Team as human Googlers do before being welcomed to the Googleplex.

Analytics Interplanetary Reports

While currently users can only get a partial picture of website visitor location, Google Analytics is expanding beyond Earth by announcing new Analytis Interplanetary Reports to help users understand visitor activities from neighboring stars and planets. Users will also be able to drill down on each planet to see greater detail, e.g. which colony or outpost visitors came from, similar to the city drill down available for Earth today.

"Did you mean: Beyonce" and Kanye West in the Play Music Store

Kanye West bugdroid appeared in the Play Music Store. While searching anything, "Did you mean: Beyonce" came up every time.

Google Edible fiber

Google released a video on YouTube claiming it invented an edible fiber which could "take feedback from the body, determine which nutrients are needed and target delivery to the specific organs that need those nutrients. The video actually links to Google Fiber, a broadband internet service by Google.

2013

YouTube contest for the best video

In YouTube's sixth April Fools' prank, YouTube joined forces with The Onion, a newspaper satire company, by claiming that it will "no longer accept new entries". YouTube began the process of selecting a winner on April 1, 2013 and would delete everything else. YouTube would go back online in 2023 to post the winning video and nothing else. After that, on April 1, 2013, YouTube briefly repeated the "YouTube Collection" joke from April 1, 2012. They also broadcast a live ceremony in which two "submission coordinators" continuously read off the titles and descriptions of random videos (the "nominees") for twelve straight hours, claiming they would do hold the same ceremony every day for the next two years.

Treasure Hunt on Google Maps

Google Maps allows the user to start a treasure hunt by selecting the "Treasure" view from the top right. Google Maps notes that the "system may not be able to display at higher resolutions than paper print" and that the user should "take care when unfolding the map to avoid ripping it." Also, the user is warned to 'beaware [sic] of pirates'. In reference to the TV show Portlandia, an image of a bird was placed on Portland, Oregon. While in this mode, Pegman is replaced with a telescope, thus giving the effect of looking through an old telescope when using Street View.

• Explore Treasure Mode with Google Maps

Google Nose

On April 1, 2013, Google launched its fake product – Google Nose BETA. This product claimed to "search for smells". Google staffers even went far enough with their creativity to cover mobile devices in this April Fools' prank with the "Android Ambient Odor Detection" which was said to collect smells from phones. "The product intersects photons with infrasound waves and temporarily aligns molecules to emulate a particular scent," said the Google Nose BETA YouTube video. Huffington Post said, "It all sounds so great." They made an introductory video explaining the purported intention behind the new feature. According to the clip, their mobile aroma indexing program created a 15 million scentibyte database of smells from all over the world.

Improved Google Play Developer Console

The addition of an "Add new awesome application" button.

Google Japanese Input Patapata Version

Google introduces a new Japanese input system. Users repeatedly tap a single button to cycle through different letters. A brief pause confirms the current letter and advances the cursor to begin entering the next one.

The name "Patapata" likely references a Japanese word for Split-flap display, onomatopoeically dubbed "Patapata-shiki" for its distinctive fluttering sound when updating. There also exists Patapon, where "Pata" is one of the sounds made with a drum; "pata-pata-pata-pon" happens to be one of the first rhythms the game teaches the user.

International Space Station on Google Analytics

Google Analytics fooled users by showing that their website was being viewed from the International Space Station control room on the real-time page.

Gmail Blue

Gmail is now the color blue.

Google SCHMICK (Simple Complete House Makeover Internet Conversion Kit)

Google SCHMICK allows the user to redesign his or her street viewed house so that the user can "fly the Australian flag" outside the user's house

Google Fiber Poles

Google Fiber to the Pole provides ubiquitous gigabit connectivity to fiberhoods across Kansas City. This latest innovation in Google Fiber technology enables users to access Google Fiber's ultra fast gigabit speeds even when they are out and about.

Google Wallet Mobile ATM

Google announced the release of the Google Wallet Mobile ATM. The mobile ATM device easily attaches to most smartphones and dispenses money instantly and effortlessly – forever ending the user's search for the nearest bank or ATM. The Google Wallet Mobile ATM technology allows the user to enter the amount of money he or she want to withdraw directly to a phone or use voice-activated dispenser. Unlike traditional ATM's, the Google Wallet Mobile ATM even dispenses rare two and fifty dollar bills, as well as more practical one dollar bills.

Levity Algorithm in Google Apps

Google introduces the Levity Algorithm in Google Apps to help users spice up even the most boring of work days.

Updated Export and Send-To features on Google Analytics

Google updated the Export and Send-To features for Google Analytics to give users even more options and support some of our favorite legacy technology: 3.5" floppy, CD-ROM, papyrus, sticky note, carrier pigeon, fax, telegram, telegraph.

Self-Writing Code Program

Google developed self-writing code program. Now that Google engineers are not spending their time at the desk programming, they have plenty of time to collaborate with teammates, attend talks and events on campus, go for a workout at the gym or try out a new cafe. Google always encourages employees to have a full life outside of the office and now Google employees have tremendous work-life balance.

Google Search Cold Trends

The least searched topics on Google, "Cold searches" is the way to discover new unique things that nobody else is into.

2014

Software Dogengineer

Google created an entry in their careers page looking for a dogengineer.

The Google Maps Pokémon Challenge

Google joined forces with The Pokémon Company, Game Freak, and Nintendo to develop a new Google Maps app for the iPhone and Android, which helps users capture all kinds of Pokémon while exploring the real world using Google Maps.

Gmail Selfie

Based on the popularity of adding pictures of oneself as a Gmail custom theme, Google launches a feature to share that custom theme (of one's self) with their friends.

Nest + Virgin

After acquiring Nest Labs in early 2014, Google teamed up with Virgin Airlines about the latest in-flight feature. Passengers on the Virgin Airlines aircraft have the ability to change their personal temperature on the plane using their latest Total Temperature Control.

Google Japanese Input: Magic Hand Version

There are many problems with inputting Japanese on a mobile device using one's finger – so Google has introduced the *Magic Hand* to solve them.

Emojify the Web

Google Translate support for Emoji is now built directly into Chrome for Android and iOS. One can now read all their favorite Web content “using efficient and emotive illustrations, instead of cumbersome text.” Google’s translation algorithm interprets not just the definition of the words on a webpage, but also their context, tone, and sometimes even facial expression in order to convert them into symbols. "Not only does this pictorial and theatrical language allow us to communicate complex emotions, it’s also far more compact. One Emoji symbol can easily replace dozens of characters, improving efficiency and comprehension on the go. It turns out the best way to communicate in the future is to look to the past: the ancient Egyptians were really onto something with their hieroglyphs."

Auto-Awesome Photobombs with David Hasselhoff

Google announced on the Official Google Blog that they would randomly insert David Hasselhoff into Google+ photos via the Auto-Awesome feature.

WazeDates

'WazeDates' uses the same crowdsourcing technology designed to help drivers around the world outsmart traffic, while creating a new space for people to meet and fall in love.

Upcoming Viral Video Trends

YouTube announced that they write, shoot, and upload all of the world's most popular viral videos, and that this year they're accepting viral video ideas from YouTube users.

AutoAwesome for Resumes

Google announced that it's rolling out special effects for Resumes on Google Drive.

Qwerty Cats Chrome Extension

The Chromium team releases a QWERTY virtual keyboard for cats on the Chrome Web Store.

Coffee to the Home

Google Fiber launches Coffee to the Home (CTTH) program for Kansas City residents; delivering made-to-order coffee drinks straight to users at fiber speeds—through the same fiber jack that delivers 100 times faster Internet.

AdBirds

Google AdWords team now released AdBirds, a new way to show ads. The user has six birds (Sparrow, Duck, Owl, Pigeon, Eagle and Penguin) to choose from, and he/she adds in a little bit of text before setting the bird free into the world, for everyone to see their ad.

Google Apps for Business Dogs

Google announced that they're launching a suite of features to make Google Apps more useful for Dogs in the workplace. Features include Dmail with translation, Hangouts with Bark Enhancement, and paw recognition technology.

Google Analytics Academy: Data-less Decision Making

Google announced a web course on how to "make uninformed business decisions on a whim by following your gut instincts and applying simple guesswork techniques."

Helpouts by Google: Helpouts from a Pirate

Scowlin' Guideon Scabb the Beardless helps one hone their pirate vocabulary 1 on 1 over live video.

Adsenses on planets and moon

Now interplanetary IP addresses are interpreted. “With our recent discovery of the interplanetary IP address repository, you’ll have access to even more reports that can help you improve user engagement on your site. For example, if you notice a lot of traffic coming from Mars, try adding more pages in Martian to engage with those audiences.”

Real TDD

Google announced the Real TDD, where one writes only the tests and have the computer write the code for them.

Google Play Signature Edition

Signature Apps lets developers ship their work directly to customers on a thumbdrive inside a special package ready for unboxing, preferably "using natural sources of locomotion such as biking and walking" to reduce the environmental impact.. The dev console includes settings for shipping apps, an explanation of the value add, and a reminder to sign apps on a piece of paper or electronically to give them more authenticity. Unfortunately, hitting the Save button doesn’t work. Google Play Signature Edition FAQs

Chromecast for squirrels

Google says it is working with “developers of ‘paw-friendly’ apps to build Chromecast support into more of the apps and websites both humans and squirrels love.”

Spreadsheets Pride

Typing in p-r-i-d-e (one letter per cell) in the first row of a Google Spreadsheet turns the entire table rainbow.

Real April Fools' Day product launches

Google has chosen April Fools' Day and the day before it to announce some of their actual products, as a form of viral marketing.

• Shortly before midnight on March 31, 2004, Google announced the launch of Gmail. However, it was widely believed to be a hoax, since free web-based e-mail with one gigabyte of storage was unheard of at the time.
• In 2005, Google increased Gmail storage to two gigabytes and released Google Ride Finder.
• On March 31, 2010, YouTube implemented its new video page design, which had been revealed two months earlier.
• On April 1, 2010, Google Street View received a new feature to toggle anaglyph 3D images. It was available by clicking on the icon depicting "pegman" wearing a pair of red/cyan glasses. The icon was present until April 8, when it was removed. The 3D view is now available by right-clicking on the image and selecting the 3D mode option or by pressing "T" or "3" on the keyboard. The images are genuine anaglyph images, with the red/cyan offset being greater for closer objects.
• On April 1, 2013, Google announced Google+ Emotion. Google+ can now 'plumb the emotional depths of everyone in the photo, then summarize their feelings with a beautifully crafted, emotion icon'
• On April 1, 2014, Google announced Shelfies (Shareable Selfies), which allows one to add pictures of oneself as a Gmail custom theme and share that custom theme (of one's self) with their friends.

See also

• Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage (AptiQuant)
• Netflix April Fools' Day jokes

External links

• About Google
• "All 22 Google's April Fools Jokes in 2012". G Tricks. April 12, 2012.
• Top 10 Google Easter Eggs on YouTube (April 20, 2013)