Great April’s Fools Pranks From Around the Web

It’s April Fool’s Day, and once again, the Web is filled with hilarious pranks.

I want to mention my favorite first, though, because it’s a LIVE prank that may not be on the air if there’s any delay. YouTube’s central prank is a video, here. It reveals that YouTube’s entire existence has been a contest to find the best video ever and that tonight, YouTube will shut down â€" the submission deadline will be over â€" and the winner will be announced.

But the best part: there’s a live ceremony going right now, where the list of nominees is being read aloud by two attractive hosts. With a straight face, they’re reading the descriptions of, apparently, every YouTube video â€" or at least every one with incoherent or inadvertently hilarious write-ups. It’s a live stream. I’ve watched 45 minutes of it so far, and I can’t stop cracking up. You really do worry for the future of humanity.

Google, which owns YouTube, is offering at least five other pranks Monday. One is the astonishing Gmail Blue, featuring a cameo by the Blue Man Group. Another: Google Maps, which now appear as ancient, mottled pirate treasure maps. (In Street View, you can peer through a pirate’s telescope.)

Google Apps now offers a Levity feature that inserts humor into your e-mail and meeting invitations. On Google Plus, the company announced that you can now add emotion thought bubbles to the photos you upload.

And then there’s Google Nose (Beta), the first scent-centric search engine on the Web.

Microsoft, not to be outdone, has Googlized its Bing search engine. (Perform a search for “Google.” Enjoy the “I’m feeling confused” button.)

Twitter announced a new premium service. You can still use the old, free version, but you’ll be limited to consonants only. (It’s now called Twttr.) “We believe that by eliminating vowels, we’ll encourage a more efficient and ‘dense’ form of communication,” says the post.

Vimeo revealed a new service dedicated to cat videos â€" called, of course, Vimeow.

The British edition of Macworld carries on the scent meme by reporting that Apple will soon sell the bottled essence of Steve Jobs. NewEgg.com, meanwhile, is offering a line of electronics that should seem familiar â€" if you were alive in the ’70s. And the cellphone maker Nokia, apparently, is branching out into hideous microwave ovens.

Kodak is offering a wrist-mounted photo-printing kiosk. The pranksters at Improve Everywhere have actually created a prank prank.

Virgin Atlantic says it has launched the first glass-bottomed plane. Samsung has unveiled the Eco-Tree, “a smart, eco-friendly air purifier that runs on solar energy.”

Finally, don’t miss Animalia, Sony’s new line of electronics for pets.

It’s great to see that these big companies are capable of such ruthless self-parody. Now if only they’d put the same amount of effort into their real products….