April Fools’ Day is one of the most annoying internet traditions, but this year Google — infamous for its numerous elaborate pranks that typically touch on nearly every major product the company makes — won’t be participating due to the serious threat of the coronavirus that continues to impact the entire world.
According to an internal email obtained by Business Insider , Google will “take the year off from that tradition out of respect for all those fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Our highest goal 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 than this one.” Was it the right thing to do? With the seriousness of the health crisis gripping the United States and the world, dedicating a day to misleading people and adding extraneous, misinforming features to critical products like Google search, YouTube, Gmail, or Maps just seems like a bad idea. Hopefully other companies will take note of Google’s lead here and adjust their own April Fools’ plans accordingly. There’s a time and a place for a good joke — but this probably isn’t it.