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Google's April Fool Prank

Updated on March 29, 2014

News Media April Fools Hoaxes go Back to 1957

In recent years it has become common for the mainstream news media to produce an April Fools Day hoax story. Of course no matter how outlandish it is, large numbers of people believe the story.

Credit for the first April Fools Day hoax story is usually given to the BBC TV show Panorama which ran a story on April 1, 1957 about harvesting spaghetti from a farm in Switzerland. The show's cameramen spent hours hanging bunches of spaghetti in trees in a small village in the Swiss Alps and then hired villagers to climb ladders and harvest the spaghetti while the cameras rolled.

As soon as the show was aired, the switchboard at the station was inundated with calls from people trying to get more information about either where they could go in Switzerland to view a spaghetti harvest or inquiring how they could begin growing in Britain. The gag was so successful that, in succeeding years other news organizations around the world began publishing similar hoax news stories every April first.

Google's New TiSP Service

In 2007 Google used April first to announce the new Google TiSP (BETA) service which, according to their TiSP web site the TiSP system is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines.

As we have come to expect from Google, this service is free which is a big savings from the $50 or more per month that cable companies charge for broadband. Even the installation kit appears to be free as there is no mention of a charge for the kit on the web site. Come to think of it, though, there is also no mention of how to obtain the kit.

All you have to do is take the fiber optic cable from the kit, place one end in your toilet and flush it down while holding on to the other end which you then attach to a wireless router (apparently not included in the kit). After running the installation CD you have to wait 60 minutes for the cable to reach the nearest TiSP Access Node where a Google Plumbing Hardware Dispatcher (PHD) (see diagram) will connect it.

In addition to free Internet access through the municipal sewage system, the service also offers In-Commode Package Delivery in which items ordered over the Internet are delivered directly to you bathroom via the municipal sewage system. With this you will no longer have to worry about packages being stolen when left on your doorstep when you are not home. If you click on the link for the TiSP Help Group, which, as of this writing, contains over 4500 comments, one of the first postings is from a user who tested the service before April 1st and was very pleased with the New York Cheesecake that he ordered and had delivered straight to his bathroom.

Google Announced other new Services on April 1st As Well

Finally, for those who are technically challenged and don't wish to do the installation themselves, Google offers a Professional Installation Service described as: which dispatches an army of factory-trained, sub-contracted nanobots from the TiSP Access Node. The nanobots travel with exhilarating nano-speed through the sewer system and into your home to perform the installation service, which should be complete within 15 minutes. Note: For your own physical safety and emotional well-being and in consideration of the nanobots' working conditions, please make absolutely certain that your toilet is unoccupied at the scheduled appointment time. However, when you click on the link you get an error page informing you that the page doesn't exist because it is probably just an April Fools joke that the staff put together at the last minute just like their:

Google Romance Service – a contextual romance service that, from the on-screen tour, still appears to have a few bugs to work out .

Google Gulp a refreshing drink designed to quench your thirst for knowledge and improve surfing efficiency.

Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (G.C.H.E.E.S.E.) a job posting advertising for researchers to staff Google's planned research center on the Moon.

Google search technology explained this link was probably a mistake because the page explains the secret formula behind the Google search technology.

Google MentalPlex Google's April Fools Day joke for April 1, 2000 which announced their new MentalPlex service where you simply think about what you want to search for and Google finds it.

If you visit the page plan to spend about 20 minutes exploring and laughing.

The Fool

Jester above entrance to Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas, NV
Jester above entrance to Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas, NV | Source
Fool presiding over entrance to Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas, NV
Fool presiding over entrance to Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas, NV | Source
A Fool above the entrance to Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada
A Fool above the entrance to Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada | Source
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