NEW YORK — The online world got an April Fools’ Day makeover as YouTube rolled out circa-1911 viral videos and the Huffington Post put up a mock pay wall.
Lighthearted pranks are an annual Web tradition on April Fools’ Day, with jokey redesigns and parody products.
Comedy video website Funny or Die, which last year became “Bieber or Die,” turned into “Friday or Die.” The site’s home page was taken over by teenage viral video star Rebecca Black, complete with “Behind the Music”-style featurettes on her song “Friday.” Even pressing “back” in one’s browser only added Black’s lyrics to the address bar.
Google, always one of the most ardent April Fools’ Day celebrators, launched “Gmail Motion,” which allows users to mime directions to their e-mail.
YouTube remade viral videos like the Annoying Orange and the Keyboard Cat in scratchy black-and-white silent clips, purportedly from 1911. (Keyboard Cat became Flugelhorn Feline.)
The Associated Press
