One of my favourite sites back home is Whirlpool, for well over a decade now it’s provided a relatively unbiased view of the broadband situation in Australian, form the humble and mediocre beginnings of one way satellite, ISDN and others as a form of broadband medium right through to current technologies such as ADSL2+, WiMAX and Fibre technologies.  It’s owner, Simon Wright, has always stood heavily on neutral ground, and has a strong policy against defamation and vendor verdicts, despite the fact I’m sure there could be a lot of money in subtley pointing what is now “8.6 million people visit ninemsn each month, representing 73 per cent of active Australian Internet users” toward one of Australia’s bigger telco’s.

So when I logged on half an hour ago and read the front page, entitled “ninemsn acquires leading online discussion site” , I was appalled at the thought that Simon may have finally sold out.  So appalled that I wrote a reply to the discussion on the topic believing while I was writing it I was the first to reply as the the reply counter had been artificially set to 0.  That is, of course until I pressed post, and I’d realised I’d joined the masses, one of several hundred who’d logged on almost simulataneously to express their deep regret over this sad occasion.

The Dead Giveaway

Who’s the patsy now though?  I am…… again.

I can remember being fooled by April Fools Jokes on Websites on at least five occasions now, two of which I knew clearly it was April Fools Day and I was still so convinced by the writeup I’d instantly believed it.  One year comes to mind when the writer of a similarly sized Australian forum informed everyone that as of the start of May, all forum subscriptions would attract a monthly fee and a fee per message sent.  As you can imagine (like a cell full of stupids) this provoked uproar, aggression and upset an awful lot of people, especially once they’d realised they’d fallen one of the most obvious tricks.  Many were shamed due to their responses.

April Fools Day does seem to be a big event on the net though, with sites from all over the globe, large and small, making obsurd claims that people fall for year after year.  Some notable examples are:

• The Google Search Tool that can see into the future
• Googles TISP, providing mega broadband to the masses, via peoples Toilet and plumbing
• Google’s Paper – providing a free priting service to print all your incoming email onto hardcopy paper.. cheap.
• (see a trend happening here)?