April Fool’s Day Pranks Run Rampant on the Net

Beware: Today is the day for practical jokers to shine. April Fools' Day marks that one day out of the 365 days of the year on which it is not only deemed socially acceptable, but also somewhat appropriate to play a harmless prank on friends and loved ones.

Instead of playing a joke on you here on this blog, we're just going to tell you about some of the pranks that have surfaced elsewhere on the Web.

Most of us have become aware of all of the incredible advancements in cloning technology over the last decade, but they have not come quite this far: The website for London's Telegraph newspaper falsely announced the creation of "Rabbits With Human Ears." One of the rabbits pictured is even outfitted with an earring. It's cute or creepy — depending on how you look at it.

Two social media giants want you to think that the days of free use are over. On Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg's timeline, he announced that the plan for Facebook this year is called "Facebook Friend Fence." Users would have access to only 20 of their friends' pages and their own. Any additional access would require a monthly $1.99 fee. One of the first comments on the announcement reads, "are you kidding me? This is the Internet. You can't charge for things on the Internet. It's not fair." Pretty sure that person is in on the joke.

Then there's Twitter. The folks at Twitter would have you believe that they would like to start charging for the use of vowels. Its post is titled "Introducing Twitter," but you know, without the vowels included. It explains that people will be allowed to tweet using only consonants from now on, unless you're willing to fork over $5 a month for the privilege of using vowels.

More pranks on the Web today include the following: Google declaring the end of YouTube, and also announcing its launch of a scent search engine called "Google Nose." In the 'end of YouTube' prank, the company announces that its entire eight-year existence has been just a contest to find the best video on the Internet. The end of the prank announces that Google will shut down the Web site at the end of the day. But don't worry---it was all an elaborate April Fools joke. In addition, the search engine giant also made an obvious dig at Microsoft by jokingly launching Gmail Blue, which turns everything in the email tool blue, so you don't have to do it yourself.

Microsoft did not miss their opportunity to join in on the fun. They used their Bing search engine to play a little prank of their own. If you type the word "google" into Bing, it leads you to a Bing page that's made to look just like a Google page — same colors and all.

So ladies and gentlemen, keep your eyes and ears open today to make sure you stay alert, otherwise the joke may be on you.

[Related: 'Kid President' Stars in White House April Fools' Joke Video]

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