Chinavasion on the World Wide Web, April Shenanigans

The Easter Bunny certainly has had a lot of surprises for the World Wide Web so far this month. The usual slew of April fools jokes were played, an eBay bomb (tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/04/03/ebay-bans-auction-listings-of-digital-downloads/) was dropped on eBook sellers and several new web 2.0 services (boxedup.com) took a larger grip on the netizen population’s collective imagination.

April First has always been a time for practical jokes and this has only flourished on the internet. This year was no exception with Google (news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-194861.html), Virgin Blue and Thinkgeek.com getting in on the high jinks. Chinavasion also told a little ‘untooth’ in the spirit of the day but more about that below.

Powersellers Unite Forum Members have been less than happy with eBay this month.

EBook sellers and general eBay traders got hit with what they wished were April Fools Jokes. Ebay announced on April 2nd that it would no longer allow auction type sales for digital products, which would only be able to sold in classified ads with no special category mentioning. This infuriated eBook sellers (tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/04/03/ebay-bans-auction-listings-of-digital-downloads/), especially as many had built up successful businesses using their seller reputations on eBay as credentials.

EBay didn’t stop there however announcing soon after that sellers would no longer be able to comment on buyers. Forum members on PowersellersUnite, an Ebay-focused forum set up in protest to an similar move by eBay a few years ago.

Internet news hasn’t been filled with stories of shenanigans though.

Boxedup users got to put their favorite items on Facebook

Web 2.0 services Boxedup and Twitter increased their hold on netizen’s imagination, offering the ability to operate within Facebook.

Chinavasion in the news

• Gizmodo (gizmodo.com/374120/tiny-bluetooth-microphone-goes-in-a-hole-drilled-in-your-teeth), Gadgettastic (gadgettastic.com/2008/03/31/bluetooth-dental-microphone/) and even the odd Dentistry forum (forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=6452516) covered the release of our bluetooth tooth.

• Geeky Gadgets (geeky-gadgets.com/?p=1479) covered our brand new watch mobile phone.

• SlipperyBrick (slipperybrick.com/2008/04/touchscreen-sun-visor-with-dvd-tv-and-radio/) took a look at our Touchscreen DVD sunvisor.