geekosystem

  What if YouTube wasn't a service to share videos online, and instead was an elaborate contest set up to find the single best video in the world? That's the premise of YouTube's new video, which features a whole host of YouTube celebrities talking about their "entries" into the YouTube contest. It's YouTube's April Fools' Day joke, but the video itself is pretty entertaining. It also got us thinking -- what is the best video on YouTube?

With all the Internet tomfoolery going on today, you might stop and wonder how all this nonsense got started. Well, this brief explanatory video gives a rundown about what we do know about the origins of April Fools' Day -- which is surprisingly little. What is clear is that a traditional prank day has been around for a long time, and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere either.

Ah, April 1st. The day when nothing on the Internet can be believed, even if it's real. This year we've been treated to a number of April Fools' gags, including fake ThinkGeek products begging to be made into a reality, Blizzard games targeted at a younger demographic, the return of Toonami, and so much more. We'll keep you updated with what's happening throughout the day, so check back often!

It's April Fools' Day, and you know what that means: All of your favorite tech companies, geek brands, and publications have poured inordinate amounts of time and effort into messing with you. But do you want to be momentarily fooled by their messings-with, or, what's worse, not see them at all as you browse the Internet today? No, of course not. Luckily, Geekosystem is here to help:

In the category of worst news to ever break on April Fools Day, rumors have been surfacing this week that Joss Whedon may direct the Avengers movie. It was reported first at IESB, who took pains to stress that this was not an April Fools joke on their part. Now, The LA Times has done some digging and hear from their sources at Marvel Studios that this is partially true. No director for the Avengers movie has been chosen yet, but Whedon is on the short list.

Here we were, all revved up to round up the inevitable crush of April Fools' Day jokes across the Internet, but then ... last night, we got distracted by our newly-founded admin powers on Reddit, ninjabanning likely spammers with extreme prejudice. By the time we woke up:

• Google had changed its name to Topeka,
• CERN had discovered its first-ever paleoparticle,
• Urlesque had rebranded itself as Urkelesque,
• xkcd had gone UNIX,
• and YouTube had rolled out its revolutionary new textp format.

Too much breaking geek news to keep track of!

Fortunately, TechCrunch's Evelyn Rusli has been on the case, managing the site's April Fools' Day 2010 scorecard. You should read it: