This year’s April Fool’s Day tricks were a cut above previous offerings.
Google, of course, came well prepared for the party:
- The 8-bit rendering of all of Google Maps in the style of a NES RPG from 1986 was fabulous, and my personal favorite: I really want to know the algorithm they used to turn satellite imagery into blocky trees, rivers and mountains. Lots of Easter Eggs to be found, too. There’s a Tumblr devoted to highlights from the map.
- Google also rolled out Really Advanced Search, a librarian’s dream come true.
- The Google Analytics team came up with a novel little hack: you could play the daily visitor metrics for your site as a piano (or a sitar!). I actually think that kind of sense-remapping visualization will become much more prevalent in the future…
- There was also a sly dig at Modernizr, Twitter Bootstrap and HTML5 Boilerplate with the release of Google Elegantizr. Related, although not by Google: The MoreCSS framework.
- The Google Chrome developer group contributed Chrome Multitask, featuring dual-wielded mice for power users, while the gMail team proposed Google Tap for mobile devices
Microsoft and Ubisoft ported Assassin’s Creed to Kinect. Which actually looks pretty sweet… until you get to the part about crushing furniture as you attempt a jump.
Nerd store ThinkGeek offered the Star Wars Admiral Akbar Singing Bass, Minecraft Marshmellow Creeps and the Technomancer Digital Wizard Hoodie.
Finally, Canadian airline Westjet offered child-free cabins with the KargoKids program
April Fool’s Day On The Web is a site devoted to the best of the web on April Fool’s for every year… and it has a ranking system.