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April Fool’s pranks: Google, Youtube, Twitter lead the charge – Metro US

April Fool’s pranks: Google, Youtube, Twitter lead the charge

Social media giants lead the way on April Fool's Day Social media giants lead the way on April Fool’s Day

Social media and search engine giants led the way with April Fool’s Day spoofs this morning as Google, Youtube and Twitter all got in on the act.

Youtube released a video Sunday evening saying that as of midnight it was closing down the service and choosing a winner for the best video ever posted on the site in its eight year history.

Tom Liston, communications director at YouTube, says in a video: “We are so close to the end. Tonight at midnight, YouTube.com will no longer be accepting entries. After eight amazing years, it’s finally time to review everything that has been uploaded to our site and begin the process of selecting a winner.”

The video features cameos from YouTube celebrities such as Antoine Dodson, David After Dentist and Charlie and his brother (from the video “Charlie Bit My Finger” video), all talking about their efforts to be named best clip on the website.

Twitter said that as of April 1 it was launching a two-tier service: a basic, free Twitter account that did not include vowels, and one that did, for a fee of $5 a month. The aim was to encourage more ‘dense’ forms of communication, said Twitter, although the letter ‘y’ could always be used for free.

Google launched its latest feature – treasure maps. Users were encouraged to go to Google maps and click an icon on the top right hand corner marked ‘Treasure’. The new ‘service’, said Google, used a spyglass in the Street View feature to reveal pirate-style treasure maps.

Elsewhere Sir Richard Branson revealed plans for the world’s first glass-bottomed plane; and the UK’s achingly right-on Guardian newspaper announced the launch of ‘augmented reality’ glasses that, when worn by its readers, would automatically filter out bigoted views.