Google skips April Fools Day 2022, but is that a good thing? [Poll]
Google has declined to participate in April Fools Day 2022, marking the third year in a row, but is that actually a good thing?
For nearly every year since the search engine was created, Google has crafted a fun April Fools Day gag, starting in 2000 with a (malfunctioning) tool to project mental images onto the screen. Over time, the tradition expanded within the company, with multiple divisions each offering their own April Fools gags to delight in different ways.
In 2020, with the world having just entered a pandemic, it was revealed through aleaked internal email that Google would not be pulling out any of their usually scheduled jokes. Last year, a similar email leaked outconfirming that Google would be skipping April Fools in 2021.
With April Fools Day 2022 well underway with no sign of gags from Google, it’s clear that the company is once again choosing not to participate in the internet’s annual day of antics. As this marks the third year in a row without a high-effort joke/prank from Google, all signs are pointing to Google discontinuing their April Fools shenanigans permanently.
Advertisement - scroll for more contentOf course, that leaves a burning question on our minds: is it actually a good thing that Google may not participate in April Fools Day?
On the one hand, Google has often crafted some of the more elaborate jokes of each year, such as 2015 and 2017’s “Pac-Maps” and “Ms. Pac-Maps,” which turned Google Maps locations into a playable game of Pac-Man. The company has also used April Fools Day to launch real products, with the revolutionary Gmail launching in 2005 just minutes before April 1 began, with many believing that Gmail’s 1 gigabyte of free storage to be an obvious sign of a hoax.
On the flip side, some of Google’s April Fools jokes have had some major backlash, most notably 2016’s “Mic Drop” gag in Gmail which would add a GIF of a Minion from Despicable Medropping a microphone to the beginning of an email. One could also argue that April Fools jokes are childish and simply a waste of time.
Whichever camp you’re in, we’d love to know more about where you stand on April Fools Day and Google’s place in it, down in the comments.
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Kyle BradshawSkylledDevKyle is an author and researcher for 9to5Google, with special interests in Made by Google products, Fuchsia, and uncovering new features.
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