Fake Internet products fool this April
Smell-o-vision is finally here. Monday, Google announced it has created a way that allows your phone or computer to change the molecules around you to mimic a certain scent.
April Fools’.
This cyber joke is a part of a growing trend of elaborate fooling, all on the Internet. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them this April 1.
Just like technology, April Fools is evolving. No longer do people need to be need to be afraid of sitting on a whoopi cushion, April fooling has gone viral. In fact, it’s become serious business.
“In the fast-paced world that we live in, we don’t always have time to stop and smell the roses. Now with Google Nose Beta the roses are just a click away,” says the ad for Google’s new “Google Nose Beta.”
Google unveiled its “new” search engine with a full webpage, even a video with a scientific explanation of how it works.
“By intersecting photons with intersound waves, Google Nose temporarily align molecules to a particular scent,” explains the fake video.
It’s so elaborate, many people we talked to thought it might be real.
“Wow, cool!” said Lynn Cataleo.
“Are you serious?” asked Daniel Daou.
If people were fooled, it was only for a second.
Daou said, “Nah, I don’t buy it.”
“I’m thinking that doesn’t really work,” said Cataleo.
That’s not the only thing Google is up to. Instead of looking at a plain Google map, a click of a mouse transforms it into a treasure map, though we didn’t find an “X” anywhere in the Coachella Valley.
Twitter has also joined in on the fun, channeling its inner “Wheel of Fortune,” announcing users must pay to use a vowels.
“We are seeing everything. I mean I haven’t noticed pranks this prevalent online ever, really,” said Edward Yeakel, digital content director for CBSlocal2.com and KESQ.com.
Even the White House played a cyber prank on the media, releasing a special announcement from the president; only it wasn’t the president.
“We’re you expecting someone else? April Fools,” said nine-year-old Robbie Novak, who is known as the “Kid President.”
These jokes takes April Fooling to a whole new level. It takes months, and a lot of money to pull them off.
“They are highly produced, highly edited, you can tell they spent a lot of time interviewing different employees, creating graphics and putting all of these things together. They have full webpages dedicated to these pranks and that is no easy task,” said Yeakel.
The art of fooling has now become a business.
“It’s a way to get people’s names out there without being obvious that they are advertising,” said Yeakel.
This April Fools’ certainly has people talking and laughing.
“On April 1st, you can’t trust anything on the internet,” said Yeakel.
That is, of course, except for this website.
