April Fool’s Day
It’s April Fool’s Day. In the first few hours of the day alone:
- the Motley Fool has announced they are done with dishing out financial advice,
- Techcruch is suing their crush Facebook,
- YouTube is hijacking some content and redirecting you to a Rick Astley video (Rickrolled, it’s being called), and the one I enjoyed uncovering the most
- Google Docs has a new item under the File menu, after New Document, it now has New Airplane and opens a page with an outline that when printed and followed will make a paper airplane. Ha!
In the end does taking the time to pull a prank on your website move the needle? Well, perhaps. They certainly can start a one-day movement that will drive the curious traffic to their sites and get their names spreading across the internet in a “did they really do that?!?” viral style. But more lasting, it reinforces the idea that these companies are fun places to work with a good sense of humor, and I am sure their HR departments are happy to see that message being sent to the masses.