April Fools' Day: Google begins search for official 笔辞办茅尘辞苍 Master
Google has a long, storied (and very colorful) history of April Fools' Day pranks.
There was Gmail Paper, its "96 percent post-consumer organic soybean sputum," and聽Project Virgle, its promise of "the first permanent human colony on Mars." And in 2013, there was the Google Wallet Mobile ATM, a smart little聽 that聽"easily attaches to most smartphones and dispenses money instantly and effortlessly."聽
In 2014, one of the most high-profile gags involves聽笔辞办茅尘辞苍, the massively popular video game franchise. In an impressively high-quality video yesterday, Google took the wraps off the 笔辞办茅尘辞苍 Challenge 鈥� a race to capture a bunch of little monsters from far-flung hideouts around the globe. The winner, Google says, will receive the position of聽笔辞办茅尘辞苍 Master.聽
"It's always been important to us to have the most qualified employees at Google," Google exec Brian McClendon in the video (with an admirably straight face). "Now using the technology created by the Google Maps team, we've prepared the most rigorous test known to man to find the world's best Pokemon Master."聽
And herein the root of the aforementioned hoax. Because although the video promises an , action-packed cliffhanger of a monster hunt 鈥� starring you 鈥� the real聽笔辞办茅尘辞苍 Challenge is聽a mini-game layered on top of the Google Maps interface.
And no, there's no actual聽笔辞办茅尘辞苍 Master gig.聽
Which isn't to say it doesn't look fun. Assuming you've got the latest version of Google Maps on Android or iOS, you can get started here.聽
