And so it begins. Creativity at its best as Google unrolls their various silly services. As April Fool’s Day is my second favorite holiday of the year and I look forward to the Internet follies every year.
Google was a little lighter than usual last year, with their CADIE service. It wasn’t as funny as past faux services, but it was consistent and across at least 13 of its US properties.
What do they have in store this year? I’m surfing Google properties East of the GMT looking for the goodies. This year promises to be real good, with Google capitalizing on Android devices.First up, Google Translate for Animals – and it’s an Android App, too! I’ve downloaded it, but I can’t get our ct to speak. So in trying to imitate my cat, it seems to just make up things, but it’s very fun. It will translate your choice of animals: bird, rabbit, guinea pig, hamser, tortoise, horse, chicken, sheep, donkey and pig.
Next, over to Australia, where Google Maps will now Optimise for Colloquial Cultural Articulation (OCCA). Claiming they can change results based on regional language colloquialisms. They have accomplished this major feat from aggregating millions of search inputs from Australians as well as scanning 23 seasons of Home and Away scripts.
Google Japan has a couple of new ideas: a new drum set-like keyboard for inputting Japanese glyphs.
And, so far, Google seems to also have brought back their Google TiSP prank. TiSP, as you may or may not recall, is the Toilet Internet Service Provider that used sewer lines to deliver Internet service. Now Google is claiming it is more of a wireless service.
I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned for more follies as they develop on April Fool’s day.
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