Google Introduces "Cadie" 1 second before April 1st

I enjoy Google's April Fool's hoax every year, and this year is no exception.

At March 31st, 2009 , 11:59:59 pm Google released this announcement

Introducing CADIE

Research group switches on world's first "artificial intelligence" tasked-array system.
For several years now a small research group has been working on some challenging problems in the areas of neural networking, natural language and autonomous problem-solving. Last fall this group achieved a significant breakthrough: a powerful new technique for solving reinforcement learning problems, resulting in the first functional global-scale neuro-evolutionary learning cluster.
Since then progress has been rapid, and tonight we're pleased to announce that just moments ago, the world's first Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity (CADIE) was switched on and began performing some initial functions. It's an exciting moment that we're determined to build upon by coming to understand more fully what CADIE's emergence might mean, for Google and for our users. So although CADIE technology will be rolled out with the caution befitting any advance of this magnitude, in the months to come users can expect to notice her influence on various google.com properties. Earlier today, for instance, CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage.
These are merely the first steps onto what will doubtless prove a long and difficult road. Considerable bugs remain in CADIE'S programming, and considerable development clearly is called for. But we can't imagine a more important journey for Google to have undertaken.
For more information about CADIE see this monograph, and follow CADIE's progress via her YouTube channel and blog.

Bonus points for calling her blog "CadieSingularity", and for making it like a teenager's myspace page. (For those not familiar with the singularity, check out the Singularity Institute website)



The Google Gmail team was up to some mischef as well with it's autopilot emails with Cadie's help




Also, Amazon is having fun with it's "cloud computing" in blimps, Reddit has re-skinned itself to look like Digg, and the Economist is broadening it's business and opening an Economic theme park (Check out the clickable map).

This South African site has an excellent list of everything they've found so far.