Gmail revolutionised email 20 years ago. People thought it was Google’s April Fool’s Day joke

Two decades ago on April Fool's Day, Google co-founders redesigned 'email' into 'Gmail' and people thought it was a prank. — AP

SAN FRANCISCO: Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin loved pulling pranks, so much so they began rolling outlandish ideas every April Fool’s Day not long after starting their company more than a quarter century ago.

One year, Google posted a job opening for a Copernicus research centre on the moon. Another year, the company said it planned to roll out a “scratch and sniff” feature on its search engine.