Google won't play any April Fools' pranks this year
What's the story
Every year on April Fools' Day, Google garners all the attention in the world with its hilarious, sometimes silly, jokes.
The pranks touch almost all company products, but this time around, it won't be doing any of that in light of the coronavirus pandemic that continues to sweep across different parts of the world, claiming tens of thousands of lives.
Here's more about it.
Message
Save jokes for next year, Google tells employees
In a recent email, Google has told its employees that it would take the year off from the tradition of April Fools' jokes "out of respect for all those fighting the COVID-19 pandemic."
The company added that its priority right now is to be "helpful to people, so let's save the jokes for next April, which will undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter."
Request
Suss out all small pranks in the works
The mail, which was sent by Google's head of marketing Lorraine Twohill and obtained by Business Insider, requested the employees to cancel all internal or external jokes they might have planned.
"We've already stopped any centralized April Fool's efforts but realize there may be smaller projects within teams that we don't know about," the message said, urging everyone to "suss out those efforts."
Decision
A wise move by Google
Though April Fools' Day pranks work like a charm for PR and drawing attention, the move makes sense, as people are heavily reliant on Google's services to stay informed on the growing pandemic.
At a time like this, tweaking products with irrelevant or misleading features/announcements could have been a major goof up on the internet giant's part.
Lead
Hopefully, other companies will follow
Hopefully, other companies in the digital media space would also follow Google's lead and cancel out their respective April Fools' plans.
We don't have any problem with some lighthearted fun, but when uncertainty looms and hundreds are dying daily, even the smallest mistake in playing a prank can lead to major confusion and panic within the public.