April 1st, 2008
Google's blast from the past
Google has launched a new feature called “Custom Time” that lets you manipulate the headers on your email so it appears to have been sent in the past. The email will show up in the proper chronological order in your recipients inbox, and you can even have it marked as if they had already read it. One beta tester writes:
I just got two tickets to Radiohead by being the ‘first’ to respond to a co-worker’s ‘first-come, first-serve’ email. Someone else had already won them, but I told everyone to check their inboxes again.
Other possible uses include generating evidence for “Judge Judy”, and sending un-belated birthday greetings.
In other news, Google and Virgin announced a new project called “Virgle” to build a permanent human settlement on Mars.
As April Fools jokes go, this one is a little weak. But sometimes the funniest part of these pranks is not the joke itself but reading comments from people who are a little unsure if it’s real or not. From newsvine.com:
I can’t get it to work, and it seems like total baloney. — Andrew
They soooooo got me with that one. I have quite a few “test” emails in my sent folder….sigh. — Mal
> As I’m sure you know, this is a hoax. — Paintball Guns
No it’s not.
Check your inbox. — Robbie Lawrence
The “Virgle” hoax is much more elaborate. It even features a video by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google co-founders. Larry can’t manage to keep the smile off his face, but Sergey is a bit more convincing. The name of the project is all the more amusing because of the talk recently of the “Microhoo!” Microsoft-Yahoo merger. BTW, Virgin Galactic is a real project that aims to make spaceflight affordable. Virgin founder Richard Branson is quoted in the Virgle ress release.
Ed Burnette is a professional developer and author of several articles and books about computing including Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform, 2nd Edition. For disclosure of Ed's industry affiliations, click here or to view his full profile click here.
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