Google thought that it was pulling an April Fools' Day prank to its subscribers yesterday, but the move completely went wrong and it had to apologize later for the disaster it caused.
As it turned out, the joke was on the search giant when the "Despicable Me" character it used on its prank inadvertently landed on the Gmail services of users causing consternation to those who received them.
The Mountain View, CA-based company thought of marking April Fools' Day by adding an additional send button to its email service. It is a gif of a minion, the yellow diminutive and oftentimes pesky mainstay in the movie.
However, not being aware of the consequences, many Gmail users hit the send button and inadvertently sent business emails and even funeral arrangement with the funny yellow cartoon character attached.
Google used its Gmail which has a feature called "Mic Drop" to insert the minion GIF. It will also block any response from the person the user is responding to. The internet search giant said: "Everyone will get your message, but that's the last you'll ever hear about it."
However, the button that activated the "Mic Drop" was automatically inserted into Gmail effectively replacing the "send+archive" button. And that was the reason why the minion went all over the place.
"This is horrible -- Just sent an email to a client with this stupid icon on it," wrote David Kitner, on the Gmail help forum. "I can't afford these stupid pranks!"
"I send a legal document which affects mine and my family's life and you stick that button in the place of a send button... Grow up," said Faye Davies, another user.
In response to the growing criticisms, Google withdrew the added feature and apologized to its users.
"Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year," stated the search giant. "The Mic Drop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We're truly sorry. The feature has been turned off," the company added.
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