April’s Fools Jokes via the Search Engines
Beyond the Google Aliens and Google Romance Contextual Dating April Fools hoaxes, there were also a number of search engine related prank announcements. With the help of Wikipedia, Google Blogoscoped and some other publications, here is the basic search engine list of April Fools jokes:
Yahoo Buys Web 2.0 :
“So after some long discussions with Tim O’Reilly, Michael Arrington, and other Web 2.0 experts, we’ve decided to just buy Web 2.0.
All of it. All the people, the round cornered boxes, crazy business ideas, and pastel colors.”
I’ve struggled for a while, trying to figure out how to write this. So long, in fact, that I intended to publish this yesterday but kept stalling. So I’ll keep it short and sweet.
I recently left Yahoo to go to work for Google.
Matt Cutts Leaves Google for Yahoo
I’m leaving Google for a new job at Yahoo! This is part of Yahoo!’s acquisition of all Web 2.0 companies (I did a panel at the Web 2.0 conference, and I recently found out that I’m included in the acquisition). Jeremy is being modest; it’s basically a blogger-for-blogger swap, but he’s got more than three times as many readers on Bloglines, so Google is contributing about 2,500 computers to even out the deal. It’s basically one computer per Bloglines subscriber, so the terms of the swap were “Google gets Jeremy, Yahoo! gets Matt + 2,546 computers,” I believe.
Ask.com announced today the introduction of RhymeRank, an innovative search technology capable of producing related search results that rhyme with a searcher’s original query. The new product is located on the right-hand side of the Ask search results page, under the heading, “Rhyme Your Search.”
“This will go down as the day the momentum in the search wars shifted to Ask.com,” said Jim Lanzone, General Manager of Ask U.S. “When combined with our site’s already-powerful “Narrow Your Search” and “Expand Your Search” capabilities, “Rhyme Your Search” sets Ask.com apart with the unprecedented ability to suggest phat new ideas for your search.”
RhymeRank was developed at a top-secret laboratory near Ask’s headquarters in Oakland, California. It is based upon the educational theory that people commit information to memory more effectively when it is phonetically consistent. Understanding this, Ask hired dozens of experts to develop algorithms capable of producing the best and most irrelevant rhymes. For example, for the query, “Weight Watchers® Rewards”, Ask.com’s RhymeRank will suggest the following alternative searches:
Rhyme Your Search
mongolian hordes
the history of fords
pictures of fjords
maternity wards
create free message boards
names of drug lords
toward or towards
chart of guitar cords
bill cosby awards
roman legions swords“Web 3.0 is clearly upon us,” noted John Battelle, author of The Search, and one of the world’s leading experts on the search industry. “RhymeRank smartly builds upon the recent relaunch of Ask.com. This is a BIG DEAL and is the kind of innovation that demands Ask’s rivals stand up and take notice. Or to sit on the sidelines in the position of the lotus.”
