If there’s one thing Google clearly does better than its competing tech giants, it’s April Fools.

Here are just a few of the many Google pranks that they announced on the internet, in an attempt to simplify things for internet users around the world from crazy new Street View ideas to changing the way we navigate around the web.

Google’s Really Advanced Search: Google introduced, Really Advanced Search, which went way beyond anything Advanced Search could do. This included searching options like “rhyming slang for”, “subtext or innuendo for” and the “this exact word or phrase”. It even goes so far as to let you filter by a “embarrassing grammatical faux pas” and font. While ridiculous, it would be very useful for those of us who really have no idea what we’re looking for.

Chrome Multitask Mode: Google Chrome’s Multitask mode lets you browse the internet with, wait for it, multiple cursors at the same time. Now you can get more done faster in what Google is calling the “ambinavigation” revolution.

Google Racing: Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin announced himself that in partnership with Nascar, Google was going to explore “building a self-driving car capable of navigating a track at speeds upwards of 200mph while surrounded by other cars.”. The answer is Google Racing. Brin does a really good job of convincing viewers that the idea is legitimate.

Watch Brin’s announcement of the partnership in the video below:

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Variety has reported that “Two and a Half Men“ star Ashton Kutcher, known for his love of tech and gadgets, will be playing the role of Steve Jobs in an upcoming movie adaptation of his life. The indie film entitled “Jobs” will be directed by Joshua Michael Stern with a script written by Matt Whitely. Filming is likely to start in May while Kutcher is on hiatus from starring in the CBS series.

The new film will reportedly tell the story of the life of Steve Jobs from “wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple, where he became one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of our time.”

Known mostly for his role in the comedy series “That 70′s Show” and more recently “No Strings Attached”, Kutcher has also earned critical acclaim for his roles in David Mackenzie’s “Spread” and Emilio Estevez’s historical drama “Bobby”, that dramatised the shooting of Robert F. Kennedy. Kutcher has also shown off his dramatic acting abilities in “The Guardian” alongside Kevin Costner.

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Arthur C. Clarke was a British science fiction author, inventor and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey  written in 1968.

In 1974, during an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Clarke is asked by the interviewer how he believes the computer will change the lives of individuals, focussing on the year 2001. Clarke responds by accurately predicting that in 2001, each individual will have in his or her “own house, a console, through which he can talk to his computer to get all the information he needs.”

Clarke goes on to mention that the computer will have the ability to perform every day tasks for its users such as online banking and online shopping (not in those exact words).

Watch what else Clarke has to say in the video below:

Most of us travelling to new destinations want to explore and learn as much as we can about the country we’re visiting but are sometimes put off by expensive and heavy guide books or tours that will spend our valuable foreign currency, whereas our cell phones are a non-negotiable travel companion.

New Cape Town based startup Hummba, that launched out of beta in 2011, is a social and travel networking website that lets you download audio travel guides for free and share your travel experiences on Hummba, Twitter and Facebook directly from your mobile phone. Hummba, as many South Africans know, is derived from the isiZulu word “hamba”, meaning “to go” but because the URL was already taken, Hummba was used as an appropriate alternative.

Hummba comes at a time when people are increasingly accessing a wealth of information, services and apps from their mobile phones and a travel guide seems such an obvious, yet brilliant feature to add.

Available for Android and iOS devices, with BlackBerry and Nokia versions coming soon, users first download the audio travel guides from a selection of over 400 hours of recorded guides for hundreds of popular tourist destinations in 100 countries. Once downloaded users simply plug in and play the guide with their phones. It may even come in handy when navigating around your own home town.

The Hummba guides combine GPS and mobile technology, with Hummba-created content recorded in the company’s three studios in Cape Town, Spain and New Zealand, using local guides and fact checking with local tourism authorities. The result is a personal tour guide giving you first-hand information at your exact location that plays as soon as the user is in the area.

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A newly uncovered patent design from the “quietly brilliant” HTC indicates that the mobile phone maker could be developing its very own Android-powered media player.

The submission, that was initially discovered by Patent Bolt, reveals that the company applied for the patent in Q1 of 2011 with the design of the rumoured device appearing to fall in line with that of HTC’s recent smartphone offerings.

The front face of the device has speakers across both the top and bottom, the backside has yet another set of speakers and a camera as well as the familiar HTC kickstand. While there so no mention of the Micro-USB and/or Micro-HDMI ports, they can be clearly seen in the image below. The device also boasts a touch screen, a feature that will put it up against that of the iPod Touch and one that has been attempted by other companies with very little success.

While this device may look like a smarthphone at first glance, Patent Bolt points out that the patent makes no reference to mobile network access or other phone features and given that it only suggests Wi-Fi connectivity, it is possible that the device will be similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy Player.

Considering HTC’s investment in Beats by Dr. Dre technology, it was only a matter of time before this type of device emerged.

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Cape Town based mobile services company Panacea Mobile, has recently launched a new Number Validation tool that allows businesses to improve their SMS delivery rates by removing inactive numbers from their lists. The tool serves as a real-time vetting process for all businesses that collect contact data from their clients.

Developed by Panacea Mobile co-founder and CTO Donald Jackson, Number Validation allows users to upload a list of numbers that will then get checked by the mobile networks using HLR Lookup. The results will then return information about each number in the list including and most noticeably whether or not a number is still valid. There is significant value in this as any inactive numbers can then be removed from the list, and because it costs less than an SMS to validate a number, utilising the tool is well worth the few easy steps required to clean your company’s data and save on any unnecessary SMS costs.

The HLR Lookup is basically a function of SMS and will ping a mobile number to detect if it is reachable which ultimately offers better data quality for companies that have large databases. The motivation behind the tool was for Panacea to see businesses spend less money on terminating SMS Messages that would not deliver and as a result decrease their total mobile marketing costs.

Stefano Sessa, co-founder and owner explains that “Mobile databases age everyday and quite often we see our clients sending millions of messages, with a delivery rate of 60% or less. Although the service is not unique to Panacea Mobile, we noticed that no other South African companies in the space are offering their clients this service.”

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While filing for its IPO, which is good news for anyone who wants to buy into the company, LinkedIn has recently added some new features to its People You May Know section, that provides users with a way to connect with other LinkedIn in members.

According to LinkedIn, People You May Know has helped millions of professionals and job-seekers grow their network through personalised suggestions offered by the feature. Now, the design has been updated with a more user-friendly layout and the relevance of suggestions more accurate.

The first update is a more “streamlined user experience” that makes it easier for users to connect with others in their network. Members can now view suggestions based on clear distinctive groups like schools, companies and past work places. To refine your search results and view people associated with that specific group, all you have to do is click on the company or school logo.

Another new feature is an “endless scroll” that presents your recommendations in a seamless two-column flow. While at the moment the list may not actually be endless, the goal is to make it very extensive.

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While Facebook started the term ‘friending’, a new app for the social network has been created that also lets users share people, places and things as “enemies” for everyone to see.

The app, launched on 15 March, called EnemyGraph, allows users to list anything with a presence on Facebook from “friends”, movies, books and products as an enemy.

The app was developed by a professor, Dean Terry, who directs the emerging media program at the University of Texas in Dallas along with two students. Terry assisted in conceptualising the project while students Bradley Griffith and Harrison Massey built the app. Griffith said that EnemyGraph has so far accumulated some 400 users but more importantly, the press coverage it has received has helped meet the team’s goal of sparking a larger conversation about the nature of social media and Facebook in particular.

Terry told Mashable that “One thing that has always struck me is the enforced niceness culture. We wanted to give people a chance to express dissonance as well. We’re using the word enemy about as accurately as Facebook uses the word friend.”

But the app is useful beyond simply sparking a philosophical debate, Terry adds. Researchers and marketers have long gathered information on social media users based on what they support or in the case of Facebook “Like”, but at the expense of possibly overlooking another valuable source of data, what they disagree with.

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