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The Best Digital Media April Fools’ Spoofs

Here at paidContent.org, we specialize in digital-media news. That’s not a joke. But in honor of April Fools’ Day, we’ll bring you some of those too. Below, a sampling of our favorite digital-media gags from today:

New VC Fund Targets “Small, Mini, and Micro” Companies: An investment fund has raised $18 million from several banks to support companies with a maximum of two employees and only modest goals. Applications for funds should be submitted via Twitter, in no more than 14 tweets. “As this was presented to us it only made sense, since the best startups can communicate all they need to only in a few slides anyway, so why not to use something that helps the startups to be concise,” says ArcticStartup, which broke the news.

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Renames Live Search As ‘MSN Windows Live Search on .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address): That’s the latest from Microsoft’s Live Search team, which says the new name results from customer research: “Danny, it’s Microsoft.com, just like you asked for. Sort of. (We wanted you to know we were listening). For those of you who fear change, you can see we have maintained a deep connection to our past. All of it. Or something like that. And we’ve even got one of those nifty “@” signs in there that you Tweeters seem to like so much.”

The fun continues after the jump

Guardian Goes Twitter-Only: The Guardian says it will become the first paper in the world to publish only via Twitter, a move that it says will consolidate its “position at the cutting edge of new media technology.” All of the paper’s archives will be rewritten as Tweets. As a teaser, the Guardian provides some examples, including one from 1961: “Listening 2 new band ‘The Beatles.’”

Redditt Renames Itself Reddigg: Don’t believe us? Visit the site now.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Launches ‘Ideological Search’: On Yahoo’s corporate blog, Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo Labs, announces a service that lets users control the political bent of their searches. “If consumers have the freedom in whether they navigate to HuffingtonPost.com or FOXNews.com, why not extend that same choice to search? Until today, no other search engine could provide this level of personalization –- ensuring that consumers can search with the utmost confidence, knowing that they won’t be antagonized by their results,” Raghavan writes.” Try it out here.

Report: Japanese Find The Internet A Scary Place: eMarketer asks, “What do giant robots and tentacled monsters have in common? They are all things that cause less fear in Japan than the Internet.” The research firm reports that 84.4 percent of adult Internet users in Japan have “felt at least once that the Internet is ‘scary.’”

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) To Launch ‘Video Street View’ In London: Not content with the introduction of the Google Street View feature in England, Google is backing an effort to put the city’s CCTV system on the Internet, The Register reports. “On completion of the first phase, practically every square inch of Central London - including narrow alleyways, council debating chambers and police interview rooms - will be accessible from anywhere in the world,” according to the publication.

Photo Credit: spacepleb

Apr 1, 2009 12:55 PM ET
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Posted In: Media & Publishing

  • Did you see the Electronic Frontier Foundations'?
    (EFFector 22.09)
    Among the best items:
    * Congress Passes "Mickey's Law"
    * FBI Announces Operation Liar Liar Pants Oon Fire
    * NSAdvice:  Kinder, Gentler NSA Hires Advice Columnists to
    Assist Spied-On Americans
    * AP Sues Artist for Being Unable to Draw From Memory
    * Google Offers Free, Ad-Supported Kitchen Appliances

  • B Colb

    Im amazed at how many sites make april fools jokes. I love them. Heres an old one the BBC did on “spaghetti trees”
    http://www.newsy.com/videos/april_fools_and_the_media/

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