Yes, It Was Just An April Fools’ Prank

Last Thursday I wrote a post announcing that Daily Blog Tips had landed me a television deal. Some of our readers noticed it was an April Fools’ prank, but given the dozens of “Congratulations!” emails I received, I am guessing that many didn’t.

That is why I decided to write this post and clarify things.

This is the third year that I pull an April Fools’ prank on this blog. In 2008 I had announced that Daily Blog Tips had been acquired. The prank didn’t work that well because the “I am getting acquired” prank is as old as the web.

Then last year I talked about an online service that would allow you to download the whole Internet to your hard disk. Obviously I was the one behind the website of that service as well. This prank worked out fine, as it even got linked from TechCrunch.

Over at Daily Writing Tips I also use this special date to have some fun. Back in 2008 I wrote a post announcing that English was to become the official and obligatory language of the Internet. The reactions were pretty funny.

This year’s prank generated even more buzz, as I announced that the ELCC (English Language Central Commission) decided to remove the letter “Z” from the English alphabet. The post got 81 comments and almost 250 retweets.

After I started working full time on the Internet April 1st became one of my favorite days of the year. It is a lot of fun to come up with the pranks and to watch what other webmasters doing the same. Even big players like Google, Starbucks and Wikipedia join the party. TechCrunch has a list with the most popular pranks this year, so check it out if you missed them.

What about you, did you came up with a prank on your website? Do you like April Fools’ on the web, or do you find it annoying because you can’t trust anything you read that day?
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