Google's April Fools Pranks
 

One is awesome, one is "WTF?" inducing.

First up: Google Maps for Famicom/NES

And yes, there is a version of this available on the actual site complete with 8-bit StreetView.
8-bit Google Maps

Next up: The YouTube Collection. All of YouTube on DVD.

I hope they'll keep the 8-bit Google Maps available to access beyond today.

As for the DVDs, if you go to the form, you can also choose VHS, Laserdisc, and Betamax. :p

They've also come up with a boatload of other silly pranks:
A self-driving NASCAR vehicle
A "really advanced" search system
An experimental feature to change the weather in your local city
A Multitask feature for Google Chrome
A new easy-to-use Morse Code feature for Android
A new Click-to-Teleport extension
The Google Street-Roo: Helping Google consistently map out the Australian outback
A feature to access websites on rotary phones
The Google Fiber Bar: "More than just vitamins and nutrients"
Google Voice for your pets
A new Jargon Bot for Google Apps to translate business code into plain English
An inside look at Google's canine employees
Interplanetary updates for Google Analytics

Since this thread is once again relevant:



...Yep, that's a thing. Sucks that it's limited to the mobile apps this time though. I don't have an iOS or Android device :(

Man, that would be a great concept for Pokemon Snap 2.

I know, right? Make this happen Nintendo!

So it's geocaching for Pokémon nerds? That's actually quite a genius idea for them. :P

if that wasn't a joke and I had a phone, you wouldn't believe how fast I would be out there completing my Pokédex right now.

So I went ahead and got the Google Maps app on my iPod, and there is something; if you bring it up and tap the Search button, there's a little button with a pokeball on it that says "Press Start". It then pans to California, where the Google Headquarters are (and it looks like Proffesor Oak's ingame lab) and you have to "catch" the sprites on the map by tapping on them. It's not the Augmented Reality that they show in the video (I wish it were) but you can still try and find all of the sprites on the map.
I actually wonder what would happen if you were close enough to where it shows the sprite on the map. Probably nothing, but I'm still curious nonetheless. Good job this year, Google!

Hm, thinking about it and Pokédex 3D Pro, I really think Nintendo could pull something like this off quite well on the 3DS if they truly desired, perhaps using Nintendo Zones as their geocaches (as being online is the only time the 3DS knows where it is geographically).

For those of you who use Gmail, they added their next prank: The shelfie.

Also for those of you who don't have a capable device for playing the Pokemon Challenge, there is a way to run if off your PC as long as you have a Google account. You need an "Android emulator" called BlueStacks. Link available in video description:

Video here

EDIT: To zoom, hold CRTL and use your mouse scroll wheel. You have to hit CTRL for each zoom level though.

Two new pranks: Upcoming Viral Video Trends and Google+ Auto Awesome Photobombs.

The Google+ one is funnier because the idea that anyone would use google plus is hilarious.

Frankly, YouTube's more recent pranks have been rather lackluster. Anyone else remember when they flipped the videos and text? ASCII mode? 1911?

Last year's was only not funny because like 60% of people thought it was for real, and I had to look on Wikipedia to find this one's. (Which I still don't get.)

One of my friends managed to find Metagross and Dragonite. I'm surprised they even added a Pokedex feature.

It was like a direct relationship; the longer it went on the less funny it got (not to say it was funny to begin with.)

That's true, too. It started to feel kind of stupid when it was about 9 PM and they were still monotoning the tags or whatever of random videos on that live stream.

www.homestarrunner.com has returned today for an April fools joke.