Google's April Fools Day Prank

01/04/10 posted by Liz Niland

Don’t say Google don’t have a sense of humour. Winning the prize for number one April Fool’s news article of the day, Google Australia’s official blog has announced a new company “framework” for Google Maps - OCCA: Optimise for Colloquial Cultural Articulation. To implement this feature, Google say they have “[synthesised] millions of aggregated search inputs from Australians as well as scanning 23 seasons of Home and Away scripts”. They say that OCCA is “a boon for local users who’d have Buckleys makin’ sense of American English”. And just like The Simpsons’ Australia episode, we don’t mind it when well-loved big Americans make fun of us Aussies.

In more serious non-April-Fools Google news, the Flash/Chrome OS link-up rumour we mentioned this week has now been confirmed and announced by the companies as fact. As reported by TechCrunch, “Concretely, Adobe has announced that its Flash Player will be included with future versions of Google Chrome right out the gate”, meaning that installations and updates will be done from within Chrome’s own updates system.

With video sites and news media outlets jumping on the HTML5 bandwagon left right and centre, there’s no doubt that Adobe would be feeling the pressure to form lasting alliances. Although still holding the majority market share by a long way, Adobe are not surprisingly making moves to steady themselves for the impending launch of the iPad.

Lastly, if you fire up the laptop this long weekend to show Aunty Pat Charlie bit my finger, be ready for an all-new Youtube web design and layout. After five years in the online video sharing business, the company have decided now is the time for “one of the largest redesigns in YouTube's history”. The Official Youtube Blog has more about the “cleaner, simpler and easier to use” interface, handy to know if you want to further impress Aunty Pat.