LinkedIn’s April Fool’s Joke

Technology firms have often used April 1 as a chance to play pranks on their customers. Google, for example, is famous for these hoaxes, to the point that its 2004 launch of Gmail (on April 1) was originally viewed as a joke.

In a crowded field of 2011 pranks that includes elaborate videos and even browser extensions, LinkedIn’s prank is perhaps the subtlest and thus the funniest. They added historical figures and fictional characters to their “people you may know” tool, including Albert Einstein, Robin Hood (“Activist/​ Chief Fundraiser at Nottingham”) and J. R. R. Tolkien. Unfortunately, you can’t actually add these people to your network, but it’s a fun gesture nonetheless.