April Fools’ Day is now associated with Google and the countless pranks which show that Google hasn’t lost its cheerfulness.
The first hoax for this year comes from Google Japan: you can now try the 8-bit version of Google Maps. Just click the “quest” button in the regular Google Maps interface.
“Our engineering team in Japan understood the importance of maps on retro game systems. With the power of Google’s immense data centers, and support from Nintendo and Square Enix, we were able to overcome the technical and design hurdles of developing 8-bit maps. Today, we’re excited to announce the result: a version of Google Maps for NES, with beautiful low-res graphics, simple and intuitive controls, and a timeless soundtrack,” explains Google.
Google Japan also came up with a simplified IME for Japanese (Google Translate) that only uses a single key: space.
Google China changed the search results page for [Qingming], but you’ll only see the beautiful animated wallpaper if you use Chrome. “The Qingming Festival (…) is a traditional Chinese festival on the 104th day after the winter solstice (or the 15th day from the Spring Equinox), usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar” (from Wikipedia).
“Use the Chrome browser, Google’s search box, enter “Qingming”, the results page is the past is not the same? Greeted by swaying willow branches, a symbol of spring in the air. “Green little Liulv the Yula have Qingming, the page will float to the surface ripples from time to time, and click a fish tail out of the water continued to click, but also do not like surprises! The bottom of the page are two cowboy, riding a piper playing in the back of a bull, quiet and lightly.” (machine translation – Google China Blog)
Stay tuned for other exciting new releases.
