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This is a compilation of our favorite April Fools’ Day pranks from around the web, listed in no particular order. But before you proceed, you should note that some of the pranks listed below, namely those that involve using your browser or other apps, might have been programed to be activate just on April 1st. So if you can’t get something to work, try tricking it by manually changing your device’s date to April 1st. Ok, off you go now...

The Pokémon Challenge

We’re starting off with Google who, like every year, remains the most passionate about this day, launching not one, nor two, but about a half dozen bogus and quirky services and features. In fact Google just couldn’t wait long enough and its first gag kicked off a day before the first with Google Map Pokémon Challenge.

Pokémon Masters, that is you if you chose to play, are tasked with catching dozens of wild Pokémon who have taken up residence on streets, amidst forests and atop mountains throughout Google Maps. It is the most rigorous test known to man to find the world’s best Pokémon master according to Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps.

In order to play, you’ll need to update the app first, then click on the search bar and hit the ‘Press start’ button written in blue with a drawn Poké Ball next to it. There are about 150 creatures to collect.

Auto Awesome Photobombs with David Hasselhoff

Google has been working quite hard at making Google+ an attractive service for netizens. Among the slew of features that it unveiled at its last conference was Auto Awesome which impressed many. And now Google has found a way to make it awesomer. Enter the David Hasselhoff Photobomb.

Google’s blog reads: “Upload a new self-portrait, or a group photo with friends, and leave some room for The Hoff. He might just make your photo a little more #Hoffsome.”

Emojify the Web

Drawing inspiration from the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, the Chrome team announced Google Translate support for Emoji built directly into Chrome for Android and iOS. That means that you can now read all your web content using efficient and emotive illustrations on your phone and tablet.

The Chrome team says that they are working on translating the entire internet into Emoji. Anything from regular text, to URLs, medical journals, legal documents, subtitles, and even code can be Emojified.

“Suddenly we realized that we could apply the magic of Emoji to web pages. Not only does this pictorial and theatrical language allow us to communicate complex emotions, it’s also far more compact. One Emoji symbol can easily replace dozens of characters, improving efficiency and comprehension on the go.”

To view webpages in Emoji, download the latest version of Chrome from the Play or App Store, then tap the menu icon and select the "Translate to Emoji" option, it should have a small Emoji of a tiny yellow man in red shorts on a tiny blue surfboard. The feature is only available in English.

Qwerty Cats

Another tech miracle from the Chrome team, this time in the form of a Chrome app. Qwerty Cats is a cat-friendly on-screen keyboard, based on extensive Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) research. Features include four pawing modalities using your trackpad or touchscreen and mouse mode. The cat translation technology is still in beta though.

The Chrome team also promises that this is just the beginning. Input research is underway for other pet users, including dogs, fish, hamsters, and dinosaurs. Qwety Cats is available for install here.

The Gmail Shelfie

This feature celebrates both April Fool’s Day and Gmail’s 10 year anniversary. Gmail Launched in 2004, themes were added in 2008 as a way for users to personalize their inboxes, and in 2012 the service took it further by allowing users to create their own custom themes. Now the third iteration which was unveiled yesterday adds Shelfies into the mix. The Shelfie, Gmail’s official blog explains, is the SHareable sELFIE. With the new feature you can set your own photo as a Gmail custom theme and share it with your friends.

Additionally, you can chose to have a trending shelfie to adorn your background with selfies of the world’s celebrities. So fat the list includes Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Adriana Lima, The Blue Man Group, Kevin Richardson aka This Lion Whisperer, and Conan O'Brien among many others. You can see who's currently trending on Gmail’s Google+ page.

The SelfieBot by OrbotiX

More on selfies, this time courtesy of Orbotix, a connected toys manufacturer. Orbotix unveiled the SelfieBot, a fully autonomous drone that hovers at your side and records your life in high definition so you won’t need to operate a phone and reach your arm all the way out any longer.

HTC and Samsung’s Wearable Gloves

Both HTC and Samsung announced horrible looking fake connected gloves. HTC did so with the HTC Gluuv, designed to work with their latest flagship, the HTC One (M8). And as a bonus, with both the Gluuv and M8 equipped on your arm, you’ll be able to grab the HTC BoomBass’ handle (another fake device, an HTC version of a boombox) to activate and unleash sound like never before. The website makes the proud promise that you will “never feel unprepared for a 90s dance off ever again.

Samsung, and in Samsung spirit, unveiled a similar device on its website too and supercharged it with close to a thousand features. The Samsung Fingers can for instance allow you to hold two conversations at a time using the Talk To the Hand feature. You can have one person talk to the Samsung Fingers, by holding your palm to his face, while you continue enjoying another ongoing conversation uninterrupted. The device will save what the third person said and you can  view it later. There are a lot more functions. You can read about them all here.

Nest and Virgin’s Total Temperature Control

Tony Fadel and Sir Richard Branson teamed up to promote their pretend partnership which brings Nest’s smart thermostat onto Virgin America airplanes. No longer will you have to endure the stomach churning temperatures on planes any longer. Now you, along with every other passenger, can control each seat’s climate individually. Whether you prefer a Cancun afternoon or a Chicago polar vortex, it’s all there.

The Virtual Bay

The infamous File Sharing site The Pirate Bay had been preparing their final ascension into the transcendence. The Virtual Bay, or the Pirate Bay evolved, will use laser projections directly onto the retina while sound will be delivered in a range from 12Hz to 79kHz and will cancel all noise from the outside world.

Then using a plugin into the the brain, users will no longer only be able to see and hear a movie or play a game, instead they will be able to live it, play the main character and tweak any story in any way they want using their brain power and nervous system.

Instead of torrent, seeders and leechers, and storage drives, humans will become nodes. “Every part of The Pirate Bay will be stored within you and everyone else that dares to participate in this step into the future. The more we are, the faster everything will be. Our scientists calculate that if we become at least 1 333 337 nodes, everything will be shared instantaneously.”

Tesla’s Pet Driving Cars

Elon Musk never shies away from taking any bold endeavors. In its latest announcement, Tesla claims that it has opted against self driving car and instead will focus on building goldfish-driving cars. The company states that, after an in-depth study of YouTube Videos, it found out that the goldfish’s zen like calm makes it the perfect candidate to take the wheel. Cats showed an inexplicable propensity to drive off cliffs, whereas dogs found it difficult to pay attention to the road and would occasionally pursue a squirrel to its tree with adverse consequences for the vehicle.

"My little chum, Eric the goldfish, has an uncanny sense for what direction to swim or drive,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk. “I would trust him anywhere."

So there you have it. There are a couple more pranks that we enjoyed, but this article has already ran far too long, so instead we’ll just give them a shout out: Tumblr’s Tumblr Pro, the Ocado sLablet (a 42-inch tablet), Google Japan’s “The Magic Hand” (video in Japanese), YouTube’s Video Trends for 2014, Virgin Active ‘s Smarty Pants (NSFW-ish), Airbnb’s List Your Desk, Apple’s acquisition of iFixit, Woodcraft’s SPLINTER, and Samsung's pigeon powered universal WiFi, the Fli-Fy. If you know of any pranks that are worthy of sharing, please let us know in the comments section below.