Google proves yet again that it has a sense of humour
One of the things I like about Google is that unlike most other big corporate companies, Google still has a sense of humour. Well shows one anyways. Anyone heard of the trick of typing into the Google search engine “the answer to life, the universe, and everything else” bringing up 42 from Google calculator? Google pulled that from the book a “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
However best of all is Google’s April Fools pranks. They love creating fake products for April Fools and they take it seriously too. They fabricate whole pages, FAQs, press releases, and images just to make the product look professional and Google-like. In 2005 it was the fake Google Gulp pop drink. In 2006, it was Google Romance, a love search engine returning contextually targeted individuals. This year, 2007, Google became really creative, creating two products, both of which are quite amusing.
The first is Google TiSP. It is a free in-home broadband internet connection runs through a fibre optic cable going down your toilet and into a node in the sewage system. The product pages were done extremely well. Check out the installation page especially, the amount of thought that went into it is amazing, and gives you quite a good laugh.
http://www.google.com/tisp/
http://www.google.com/tisp/faq.html
http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html
The second prank they pulled this year is Gmail paper. It is targeted towards those who want to avoid the digital era. People can sign up to have their Gmail email messages printed on paper and mailed to them for free. Google says they are able to do this through targetted ads on the paper. They even print out photo and text email attachments. The page is really well done, especially the find out more page. Check it out at:
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/index.html
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/policies.html
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