Animal Translate
Google is claiming that Google Translate is now capable of translating the various sounds of a number of animals into search terms before automatically scouring the web for pages matching their requests. This is of course not true but they’ve gone as far as to create a video for the false service:
See the prank page here.
OCCA
Google is also claiming that Australian users of Google’s turn-by-turn navigational system will benefit from Optimise for Colloquial Cultural Articulation, or OCCA. This basically means that the spoken navagational instructions will use a vocabulary more familiar to Australians:
Directions
"Chucka U-ey" - Execute a U-Turn
“Hang a Right” - Make a right turn
“Fang a Left” - Make a left turn
"Hit the frog and toad" - The road
"Hoof it" - Walk
"100 Clicks" - 100 kilometres
"Not within Cooee" - Not close by
"Down the road" - Unspecified term indicating distance
"Chucka U-ey" - Execute a U-Turn
“Hang a Right” - Make a right turn
“Fang a Left” - Make a left turn
"Hit the frog and toad" - The road
"Hoof it" - Walk
"100 Clicks" - 100 kilometres
"Not within Cooee" - Not close by
"Down the road" - Unspecified term indicating distance
Driving Styles
"Hit the anchors" - Brake, now
"Flat chat" - Going very fast
“Hoon” - Fast, irresponsible driver
"Bingle" - Car accident (not Lara)
"Bogged" - Stuck
“All over the shop” - Veering across lanes
“Rough as guts” - Car needs a tune
“Bag em up” - Smoke the tires
“Drive like my Grandma” - Going too slow
“Amber Gambler” - Runs orange lights
“Sunday Driver” - Poor driver.
3D Maps and Books
Google Maps now has a 3D icon when in StreetView mode which applies an anaglyph effect to roads, buildings and various other ground-level elements. This is as false as last year’s 3D browser plug-in and will not work with 3D glasses.
Google Books also underwent a falsely humorous 3D makeover.
YouTube!
YouTube just changed dramatically. Well, the video pages have changed and this is for good but I’ll include it in this post nevertheless. The 5-star rating system has gone completely and has been replaced with a Like button and a Dislike button. Facebook will be pleased. You’ll also find that the general layout has altered and things are generally easier to access. It also looks a lot neater and more professional. Comment your opinion if you wish!
It’ also worth noting that the YouTube logo is in ASCII art. This is because there is a new quality setting for all videos called ‘TEXTp’ which turns the video into ASCII and claims to save $1 of bandwidth cost. This is of course a falsehood.
Google Voicemail
A mythical service which allows you to re-introduce a 1990’s-like voicemail service onto any phone you may have which uses Google Voice. Clicking a button the Google Voicemail webpage generates a dialog box revealing that it’s an April Fool’s joke.
See here.
Google Wave Wave
Google Wave hasn’t had a great deal of success but a joke was made of it nevertheless:
See here.
Google Japanese Keyboard
If you don’t already know anything about the Japanese language then the one thing you really need to know that there are literally thousands of characters. Google jokingly reported that they’re introducing a Japanese keyboard system.
See here.
Third Party
One company thought they’d be funny and ruin the chances Google had of launching a false Google Jail service in order to make prisons better fore everyone. A second third party foundation is making claims that Google is making the jump to nuclear fuel.
See a full history of all of Google’s pranks here.
2 comments:
i think the new youtube layout is utterly vile, and the ratings system is so much less useful for judging videos
agreed. i saw it and i thought it was a joke but it's still there so it isn't. the rating system is terrible as opposed to what it used to be as well.
Post a Comment