Hacker News Reader

Comment by k-mcgrady | Hacker News Reader

Anyone else tired of the April 1st stuff? Lots of stuff has been showing up since the 31st too. I used to enjoy the holiday because it had some built-in restraint (no pranks after midday) and I'll admit for the first little while internet companies getting in on it was fun. But they've ruined it by over saturating it. How many pranks does one company need to put out?

Edit: In fact it might inject more fun again if Google and everyone else only showed the pranks up until midday based on your location and if you were interested you had to find them before then or you wouldn't get to see them live.

View on HN

It's kind of cringeworthy that Google is still doing this. They're not the small, "cool" startup anymore. It's like the popular kid from high school who kept hanging out in the parking lot years after graduating

I don't know about that. IMO they are the coolest of the big companies - Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Amazon all feel more corporate-y.

Or it's just silly and the people working there like to have a little fun like everyone else?

It's not though, they clearly put a lot of effort into these things. It's just a marketing exercise.

yeah, that's the thing, they're putting in so much effort on these - it's like a PR thing.

But it's not funny.

It is to someone.

I'm not tired of it. If google wants to spend money on this, then it's their prerogative.

Also, locking pranks by timezone won't work on the internet. At most it would just frustrate people in (for example) PST who want to play with or see the pranks that people in EST get access to.

The timezone point was that everyone gets access up until midday in their own timezone. So in EST they have it until 12pm EST and in PST they have it until 12pm PST.

I don't think they're spending money on this. Maybe some Googlers worked this out on their 20% time. Which is designated to not be of much commercial use anyway.

20% time doesn't exist anymore.

Yes it does. If the project is related to your job you can easily get your manager to let you spend 20% of your time on the side project and 80% on your current job.

However If the project has nothing to do with your current job your manager might have you work at 120%. And you are still responsible for your job and on top of that you can do the side project. However unlike other companies google will fund the project.

(Disclaimer I work at google and have been granted to take a week off work for a 20% project. And done the whole 120% time for a project)

So.. 20% doesn't exist anymore. What you've describe is nothing like the original 20% time.

"if the project is related to your job" -- the whole point of 20% time was that _you_ choose what you work on, not the manager that defines the boundaries of your job.

"120%"? Isn't that the same as "not paid to work on this, but company owns it"?

I think you've drunk the koolaid.

120% in yes you are doing more then 40 hours a week. But google pays for all expenses of project and you can use said project to get a promotion.

A good example of this is people using Google servers to analyze all the code on GitHub to patch sec vulnerabilities. Or adding Easter eggs to Google search. There's also one team building a full fledged flight simulator from scratch and google is paying for the space, workshop, computers, and some raw supplies.

I don't see what's changed from a 20% project of past.

Your manager is doing it wrong. A 20% project does not have to be related to your current job, and you shouldn't have to get manager approval - just let them know. They can request you bank your time for a while, but that's it.

You don't think they're spending money on this?! I would venture a guess they're spending at LEAST $1m on April Fools jokes alone. That includes time (beyond the 20% project) and hiring production companies to make spots like this.

I mean, just imagine the sheer number of personhours needed to create the Google Maps Pac Man game.

That being said, this money is a drop in the ocean for them, and the fact that it gets coverage on plenty of places, it's probably a pretty solid marketing move.

No one wants to see this tired marketing chum. The "creatives" are probably more useful starting next year's Super Bowl ad, or putting on monkey suits and dancing in the lobby, or busking in front of the building.

Or maybe the "jokes" could only be served over http, not https, and would gradually fade into the background.

I think it's early this year because people don't want to release stuff on the weekend.

I can't wait for next year, then.

I'm tired of people saying that they are tired of it. It's one freaking day of the year on the internet. You know, you could just work today and not visit too many websites and you'd never know if there were a "lot" of April 1st stuff. I don't care for these april pranks at all, but to complain about it is just next level.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com