Find some buried treasure, fly in a glass-bottomed jet or mock the Caped Crusader… these are among the many ways you can be fooled thus far on this April Fools’ Day, 2013.

The media and technology sectors have been busy already this morning, coming up with some new and clever ways to pull the wool over our eyes on the one day of the year when all the stops are pulled out to deliver the laughs. Of course, some gags are funnier than others, but we’ll let you decide in this morning roundup of the funny and the lame.

Google: Class Clown Or Else

If you’re judging on sheer number of pranks, then hands down the Mountain View search engine company takes the prize in 2013.

Apparently, when Marissa Mayer took her stop-screwing-around-and-get-some-work-done attitude with her when she went to Yahoo, her former co-workers took that as a sign to cut loose and let their funny flags fly, launching no less than nine goofs.

Gee, if only they could put this much effort into Google Reader.

• YouTube Closing. Millions of videos later, YouTube reveals that the whole thing was actually one big contest for finding the world’s best video. Now that the contest is over, Best Video nominees will be previewed in a 12-hour cycle for the next two years.
• ‘Dem Naughty Gmail Blues. In a feat of massive re-engineering, the team at Gmail has provided users with an all-blue interface. Watch thestirring marketing video and hey, just remember, Gmail itself wasonce thought to be an April Fool’s joke. If it ever goes the way of Google Reader, it still could be.
• Avast Ye, Scurvy Dogs! The Google Maps team has discovered the lost treasure maps of Captain William Kidd, and is asking users to help decode the symbology from the find. No word if this will actually reward patient humorologists with booty.
• Make Your House Look Fabulous! If you’re tired of the way your home looks on Google Street View, the Google Australia team is happy to help. Their new Simple Complete House Makeover Internet Conversion Kit (SCHMICK) will let you redecorate your home on Street View at no charge.
• Smelling Is Believing. Those Street View cars were apparently hoovering more than just stray wi-fi data… they were also recording the smells of the world for Google’s new Google Nose service (in Beta, natch). The new service appears all day on the Google nav bars, in case you want to sniff it out. (Yeah, I went there.)
• Analyze This. Google Analytics, long the authoritative source for finding out who’s coming to your site, has upped its game with accuracy, enabling real-time tracking from visitors from the International Space Station.
• Emotions Are Logical. Google + gets a real plus in the new +Emotion service that lets you tag photos with unambiguous emoticons. You know, in case the actual expressions on people’s faces weren’t clear enough.
• Google Fiber Everywhere. Yeah, I’ll come clean: I want this one to be oh, so, true. Because moving to Kansas is not optimal.
• The Source Of The Funny. Ah, now we get to the source of Google’s overabundance of the funny this year: the Google Levity Algorithm, a new feature for Google Apps that enhances documents and interactive communications based on 50 years of comedy material from Second City.

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