April fools Articles

Gritty Calvin and Hobbes and The World Without A Sun [Fun Video Friday]

In this week's Fun Video Friday we really find out what happens when the Earth loses the sun. We also see what happens when Times Square goes backwards. And one airline has a solution for that awful "kids" problem on airplanes. And if you want to see absolutely stunning time-lapse photography of New Zealand, you've come to the right place.

YouTube's Prank A Tremendous Execution in Marketing

YouTube may have pulled off a masterstroke when it came to their April Fools Day shenanigans, declaring "The End of YouTube." Behind that April Fools joke was a very successful marketing plan, and it appears to have worked like gangbusters.

Vimeo's April Fools Joke: Vimeow

Oh, April Fools isn't over. Vimeo decided to get in on the fun by rebranding their site, "Vimeow," as a one-stop source for all things cat video. Considering the high-quality pedigree of Vimeo, poking fun at the general perception of YouTube suits them nicely.

Rhett & Link's April Fools Uses Trick Annotations to Prank Viewers

Master YouTubers Rhett & Link have made a masterful April Fools video that will have you scratching your head at first. Why can't I get to the "Funny Baby Panda Kiss?" Why can't I see this video? Why are there so many ads? With a little ingenuity in chapter annotations, Rhett & Link have pulled off a great prank. But don't forget to watch the content.

April Fools Pranks: Google vs. YouTube is an Uneven Contest

It's April Fool's again, which means YouTube and Google will be pulling out all sorts of video pranks this year. With YouTube primarily focused on video and Google primarily focused on search domination, you would think YouTube would come out with the best video pranks. Not so.

The Official YouTube DVD Collection: Get The Magic of Online Video, Offline

In a huge step for the industry today, YouTube announced perhaps the boldest new innovation for the online video industry since its start....The ability to watch and collect your favorite online videos, offline, on DVD. That's right.  Even though people are starting to watch videos online and ...

Monday Morning Grindhouse: Weekend Viral Video Marketing Clips To Start Your Week

Last weekend, an illness kept me cooped up in the house, and I ended up spending it watching emerging viral videos. That led to a Monday round up article to start your week with the weekend's most buzzed-about videos. Which was, apparently, much enjoyed. So ...

Gmail Launches Live Video Recognition for Motion Gestures

Google has for years, been working to develop and perfect certain recognition technologies for use with multimedia (video, images, audio, etc...).  Their speech-to-text recognition technology has improved vastly over the past several years (thanks in part to Google 411) and has been rolled out within YouTube for ...

YouTube's 100th Anniversary April Fools Joke Takes Online Video Back To 1911

One thing the Internet always bands together for is April Fools Day. You can always count on even the biggest websites to pull out a gem of a gag or phony article. And YouTube always has a little fun with the holiday as well, and ...

Surprise, Surprise: YouTube Million Dollar Gift Was All A Hoax

You should probably sit down for this. Get composed, and ready yourself for really unexpected, bad news: The kid that asked for a million dollars on YouTube and then got it? Yeah, total hoax, exactly like I said it was. After staging a check-awarding ceremony ...

Cat Invasion and The Best High School Teacher Ever - Viral Video Round Up

I've made no secret of my love of cat-related videos, so it should come as no surprise that we're featuring two viral video successes that star felines.  And our final example features the return of a viral star we talked about way back in one ...

iPhone App Fun, Video Games Attack, and A Freaky Voice - Viral Video Round Up

Good grief.  This is one of the best weeks for viral videos since I've been writing this weekly Round Up article.  There is so much good content to feature and reverse-engineer that I had a terrible time choosing which viral successes to feature.  Needless to ...

Is YouTube’s Content ID Gaining Momentum As A Distribution Network?

I wrote last summer about the JK Wedding Dance video, and how it ultimately proved to be a huge positive example of the Content ID system making a company some money.  Without permission, the couple had used Chris Brown's song "Forever" as their dance music ...

Obama Administration's YouTube Contest Stumbles Out The Gate

Saying that you're hip doesn't necessarily make it true. The federal government's web directory, USA.gov, is hoping kids and teens are the key to growth and success.  So they're doing what any brand hoping to leverage that demographic would do:  they're holding a YouTube contest.

Google's April Fools Joke 2008 - Gmail Custom Time

Introducing Gmail Custom TimeTM - Be on time. Every time. WTF?? Ok, I know it isnt really video related but... according to my clock, it is still March. Why Google, oh why....? I actually fell for it for a second and had what I thought ...