8 Ways to Sunday

Several major media outlets have picked up Google’s “Gmail” prank and are running it as a real news story. You can read awe-struck prose on the new e-mail system from the Associated Press, The New York Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many others. The press release issued by Google promises, among other things, a full gigabyte of storage for every user and relevant text ads in e-mail messages based on their content.

There’s always the chance that the story is actually true. Unlike Google’s past April Fools pranks (e.g. MentalPlex and PigeonRank), this one seems somewhat believable in concept and has a very credible-looking web site to match. There’s even a privacy policy and terms of service. There’s also the not-so-small matter of the lunar base prank that appeared on Google’s site today. Google has never been known to do two April Fools Day pranks at once. Is the lunar base a red herring?

If the story is true, then Google has scored an amazing marketing double back-flip. A company with a history of April Fools pranks issues a too-good-to-be-true press release on March 31st, just in time to get it in the next day’s new cycle. Wild speculation and debate ensue, and when the story proves to be true on April 2nd even more coverage results. If the story is false, it will go down as one of the greatest pranks in the history of the Web.

Update: Turns out Gmail is the real deal after all.

It’s tradition among web sites big and small to put some kind of prank on their home page on April Fools Day. Google, for example, is now hiring for positions on their moon base and has launched their own free e-mail service with 1 GB of storage per user. Meanwhile, the IRS has joined the social networking craze with their own product, WYSKster. In related news, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced a merger with the Department of Justice in order to better compete with the ACLU in the fierce civil liberties advocacy industry.

There’s much more silliness to be found out there, so waste some time in your cubicle this afternoon perusing the lists of joke sites compiled by Waxy.org and urgo.com, or surfing Slashdot’s always amusing April 1st home-page lineup. Get ’em while they’re hot, because these sites usually go back to normal on the 2nd.

Is anyone else having trouble reaching the Six Apart and Movable Type web sites right now? Never mind, they’re back now.