From Mentalplex to Gmail Tap: Google's top April Fool's Day pranks over the years

[caption id=“attachment_261479” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  This was the very first Google prank on 1 April 2000. The Mentalplex had a swirling animated gif at which you needed to stare at for some time and then clicking on it would project the image that you were visualising. On actually clicking you were presented with lot of error messages[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_261477” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  The Gmail Shelfie prank which was introduced last year let users add their pictures or selfies as the background image on their Gmail account. It also promised that you could share your custom theme with your friends[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_261480” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  Gmail Tap, a prank from 2012, showed users typing on their Android and iOS devices using a keypad which just had the Morse symbols - a dot and a dash - which could be used for typing out sentences.[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_261474” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  Rickrolling is famous Internet meme which basically redirects you to Nick Astley’s 1987 song ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. YouTube played the ultimate Rickrolling prank in 2008, when it redirected every featured video on April 1, 2008 to the Nick Astley song[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_261473” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  Nest + Virgin = Total Temperature Control. This elaborate prank carried out last year had Virgin founder Richard Branson and Nest (which was acquired by Google) founder Tony Fadell promising Virgin Atlantic flyers that they would get a Nest controller behind every seat which would control their personal temperature on the plane[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_261476” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  Gmail Motion, in 2011, fooled users into believing that your system’s webcam and Google’s spatial tracking technology could translate your movements and gestures into meaningful commands and sentences[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_261475” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  On April 1, 2013, YouTube in partnership with satire company The Onion announced that it was not going to accept new videos and would shut down. YouTube said that it would select the best video from 2005 to 2013 and would put up that video in 2023 when it would be back online[/caption]