Commentary

Alexander Wolfe
 

Google's April Fools'

This year's first day of April wasn't the usual workday hoot, since it fell on a Sunday. However, the guys at Google had a good time, posting on their site news of a faux beta for a high-speed Internet service running through your, er, toilet.

This year's first day of April wasn't the usual workday hoot, since it fell on a Sunday. However, the guys at Google had a good time, posting on their site news of a faux beta for a high-speed Internet service running through your, er, toilet.That's right. In what Editor & Publisher charitably described as a case of "corporate potty mouth," the search engine company posted a notice that it had launched a beta of something called Google TiSP.

What's TiSP? Why, it's "Toilet Internet Service Provider," of course.


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As Google describes it:

"Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines."

Lol. I think.

One wonders if the under-30 contingent at Google thought this one up, but that would imply that there's a meaningful collection of older employees. (I know, I know, Google emphasizes that there are lots of older people working there.)

Still, there's no harm in what Google did here. Hey, Howard Stern has made a pretty good living off of potty jokes (among other things). And heaven knows that Google, like its older cousin Microsoft, can certainly benefit from public displays of humor.


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