April Fool's Hoaxes

Several websites have taken on the task of compiling April Fool's pranks. Via Slashdot, there's a Wikipedia roundup of notable April Fool's hoaxes (a "complete" and "definitive" list of hoaxes has also been compiled at Wikipedia, but it would seem rather difficult to learn of every single hoax that happened yesterday)

The Museum of Hoaxes also has a roundup of 2006 April Fool's hoaxes. They're especially taken by Google Romance, a dating service announced April 1st, in which "users who find one another via Soulmate Search may then select the Contextual Dating option, which offers an all-expenses-paid romantic evening in exchange for viewing contextually relevant advertising throughout the course of the users' date."

Plus, if you need help, Google will be there for you... eventually:

"Got pressing questions about your Contextual Date? More than 500 carefully screened Contextual Dating Advisors are ready to answer your question for as little as $2.50 (per minute), usually within 24 hours and conceivably much, much sooner, depending on your levels of personal desperation and financial werewithal and the quality of your GPS signal and mobile plan."

Newspaper and magazine hoaxes this year included articles about romances between Prince Charles and Barbra Streisand and Chuck Berry and Sylvia Plath, Coldplay's Chris Martin endorsing Tory David Cameron, a new 20 kilometer speed limit on bicycles in Stockholm (The Wikipedians missed this one), and a plan to genetically engineer and sell pet dragons.

Neutral Milk Hotel - April 1st (from On Avery Island)

Blur - Fool (from Leisure)