Woe is the Web: April Fools' Day on the Internet

We run down all the hits and misses from this (in)glorious day

By John Mahoney Posted 04.01.2008 at 4:27 pm 3 Comments

Only on April 1 Virgle: the Google/Virgin Galactic mashup. google.com

Woe is the Internet on April 1. For it is on this day where sites large and small rack their brains for the perfect Fools' Day prank, briefly vindicating those that continue to hold the belief that the Web serves as nothing more than a sloppy ocean of untruths and nonsense.

Even though the day isn't even over yet, we here at PopSci are already longing for the saner and relatively pun-free comforts of April 2. Nonetheless, we still must raise our virtual dribble glasses in recognition of some of the more notable April 1 pranks today on the Web.

See our gallery of favorites here. Any we've missed? Throw them in the comments below.

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3 Comments

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Michael Moyer

04/02/08 at 10:44 am

Astronomy Picture of the Day had a good one:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080401.html

In a surprising and potentially troubling request, the new space station robot known as Dextre demanded that astronauts refer to it in the future as "Dextre the Magnificent."

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John Mahoney

04/02/08 at 12:10 pm

I also have to include this opening paragraph from the Wikipedia entry for April Fools' day. It is so elegantly written:

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.

Of varying sophistication!

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dcswinehart

05/26/09 at 8:24 pm

Seems to me that years ago you had an April Fool item that answered questions from readers. When asked why FM radios sometimes pick up noise when the car is stopped at a traffic light, the official response was "Doppler shift." Priceless.

If this was some other publications, apologies to both you and the actual periodical that carried it.

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