Gmail Paper Fools Some

Google launched a brand new service yesterday. Or did they? Gmail Paper was pitched as Google's new service for net-phobic individuals who prefer to keep hard copy versions of all their emails. The service offered to print hard copies of any and all emails stored in your Gmail account and deliver them via post to your door, all for free. Here's some blurbs from the promotional page:

"The cost of postage is offset with the help of relevant, targeted, unobtrusive advertisements, which will appear on the back of your Gmail Paper prints in red, bold, 36 pt Helvetica..."

"Gmail Paper is made out of 96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum, and thus, actually helps the environment. For every Gmail Paper we produce, the environment gets incrementally healthier."

The April Fool's gag cleverly played on the current high profile of global warming and environmental issues by promoting a service that was obviously detrimental to both.

When I first read about Gmail Paper from within my Gmail account, I was quite alarmed and it took about 30 seconds for the joke to kick in. But judging by this Google search for "Gmail Paper", a lot of people were fooled into thinking it was a real service.

Cute Google, very cute. In other April Fools news, Matt Cutts' blog may have been hacked.

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