Internet giants hoax consumers, fans

April Fools’ Day was filled with pranks by some of the biggest names on the internet.
Google announced Google Nose Beta, which was allegedly designed to allow users to both search by scent and smell through search.
“By intersecting photons with infrasound waves, Google Nose Beta temporarily aligns molecules to emulate a particular scent,” a promotional video regarding the concept said.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” Tech student Fahad Almansour said while reading the article, before realizing it was an April Fools’ joke. “I don’t know, it will make [the internet] more real.”
Google also released a Treasure Mode for its Maps feature, which lets users view Google Maps in the style of a treasure map.
Some hidden symbols are revealed only by sunlight. Some must be joined like a puzzle,” Google said in its YouTube video. “Some react to fire,” it also said, complete with a message in text that read “do not attempt at home.”
YouTube, itself, posted a video revealing the site was actually an eight year-long contest to determine the best video in the world, and that the site would be deleting all of its submissions and shutting down at midnight.
“Every video that has been uploaded to our site will be reviewed by our staff of 30,000 technicians. They’ll narrow down the submissions, and then our esteemed panel will select the best video, which will be announced when the website goes back online in 2023, featuring the winner of YouTube and nothing else,” Tim Liston, Competition Director, said.
Netflix added some unique new categories to its site for the occasion, such as “Reality TV About People With No Concept of Reality,” “Movies That Are In English But Still Require Subtitles,” “TV Shows Where Defiantly Crossed Arms Means Business!” and “Movies Featuring an Epic Nicholas Cage Meltdown.”
Twitter announced that it would be changing to a two-tiered service, in which basic users would lose their ability to use vowels.
“Everyone can use our basic service, Twttr, but you only get consonants. For five dollars a month, you can use our premium ‘Twitter’ service which also includes vowels,” Director of Product Kvyn WI said on Twitter’s blog.
Deviantart redirected to a new page called DeviantHEART on April Fools’ Day, which claimed to be the first dating site created exclusively for artists.
“With deviantHEART, deviants are now able to use our Advanced Matching Technology to discover the love of their life. Once matched, you can reach out to your newly discovered partner to begin your lifelong journey together,” the caption on DeviantHEART’s page read.
reddit revealed that they purchased popular online FPS “Team Fortress 2,” and stated they would be integrating features from the game into the site.
“Starting today, you’ll be able to customize your account with hundreds of weapons, hats, and more. Tweak your reddit account to suit your style and personal taste. Best of all, virtually all of the items can be acquired from normal site surfing via random drop. You don’t need to pay to win. (But it certainly couldn’t hurt!),” the announcement on reddit’s blog said.