On April 1, 2004, Google announced it was launching Gmail, a free e-mail service featuring an unheard-of gigabyte of free storage.

Given the timing and the fact that Yahoo Mail and Hotmail then offered less than 10MB of free space, most people laughed off the Google news as a funny April Fools joke.

Of course, we know now that the Gmail gambit was for real. But in the Internet age, April 1 has become a day when dozens upon dozens of good-natured online hoaxes are perpetrated each year. Thus, people would be wise to smell-test just about everything that pops into their browser on and around April Fools Day.

"For new users especially, its hard to tell the difference between legitimate sites and the hoax copies."
--Andy Baio, blogger

"People tend to believe things that sound plausible or appear to come from a credible source," said Andy Baio, who writes the popular technology culture blog Waxy.org and who each year tracks the best April Fools pranks. "For new users especially, its hard to tell the difference between legitimate sites and the hoax copies."

Baio also coined a term for April Fools Day, "Internet Jackass Day," which some fans of the tradition think is pretty apt.

This is one that goes above and beyond the call of April fools duty...

http://www.bushtorrent.com/