It’s April 1 and that can only mean …

A quick roundup of early April 1 fun found on the web


Conan O’Brien Buys Mashable, Ousts Pete Cashmore as CEOL: Yes, you read that right. It begins: "Hello, fellow Mashables. It’s Conan O’Brien, and I’ve got big news. Two hours ago, I purchased Mashable.com. I’ve taken it over." Mashable’s home page now also features a "Powered by Conan O’Brien" banner. 


Google Maps go 8-Bit: On the Google Maps page the top right clickable tab is Quest and it takes you to a beautiful 8-bit-style map that looks like it was made for the old Nintendo Entertainment System in your basement. Even the Street View images have been solarized and made into crazy color 8-bit views. 


Google announces driverless car for NASCAR: You may already be familiar with Google’s self-driving car project. So what would logically come next? A self-driving NASCAR race vehicle of course! Google announces the launch of Google Racing, a "partnership with NASCAR to help self-driving vehicles compete in the world of stock car racing." 


Google Street Roo - exploring the outback one bounce at a time: Google Australia finds a way to conquer one of the final frontiers on that continent - The Outback. The site announces that: "Over the next four weeks, more than a thousand Big Red kangaroos will be equipped with a 360-degree head camera that will automatically capture images when the marsupial is on the move during daylight hours." 


 And finally a game that asks the question… 


April Fools’ Day prank or real app? As more and more off-the-wall apps appear, it might be difficult to figure out what’s real and what’s not. So folks at The Next Web decided it’d be fun to play a game. The blog post offers descriptions of things that may or may not be real apps and at the end gives the correct answers. It’s more fun if you don’t skip to the end! 


Image from Mashable.com