The Google April Fool's Day joke has become something of a tradition at this time of the year, even in China.

Last year, Google (GOOG) posted a mock recruitment ad for a Google 'human flesh search engine' (here in Chinese). This year, the Internet giant announced the launch of a new service in China: the 'Google Pigeon Bird's Eye View.' Similar in concept to Google Street View, Google says the new service will be used to improve the image resolution on Google Earth and Google Maps, while also embracing China's vibrant 'shanzhai' culture.

The project's mission: to collect all sorts of shanzhai information about shanzhai celebrities, shanzhai places to go on a date, shanzhai innovations and shanzhai terms.

Google says that the new service aims to help 'everyone can enjoy the benefit of shanzhai culture.' An exact total of 31,415,926 pigeons have been trained as 'Google pigeons' (in Mandarin, 'Google pigeon,' 嗷贾 guge, is a pun on Google's similar sounding Chinese name, 嗷貉). The birds will be equipped with high-tech devices including a blue hat with GPRS and head massaging capabilities, a Chinese-style chest covering to hold CADIE chips (a reference to another Google spoof).

Anyone can summon a Google pigeon by standing on a rooftop (or other outdoor area of over 20 square meters), logging on to http://g.cn/ with a 3G phone and repeating 'gu-gu-gu' (the sound of a pigeon's cooing) into the microphone icon on the screen. Within 20 minutes, a bird will arrive (Unless there is a technical bug or if the bird is in a coma).

And to avoid privacy disputes, those who don't want information on their homes collected by the Google pigeon can make a paper bird according to the instructions provided online, and wave it in their windows whenever a Google pigeon show up.

To celebrate the launch of the Google Pigeon Bird's Eye View, Google said it would change the name of the company's Chinese-language blog from 'Google Blackboard Daily' to 'Google Pigeon Shanzhai Daily'.

每年这个时候，谷歌(Google)的愚人节游戏已成为一项传统，即使在中国也是这样。

去年，谷歌登出一则假广告，声称"谷歌人肉搜索招聘志愿者"。今年，谷歌宣布将在中国推出一项与谷歌街景(Street View)概念相似的新服务"谷鸽鸟看"。谷歌称，这项新服务将"大幅提高谷歌地球(Google Earth)和谷歌地图(Google Maps)的图像分辨率"，同时推进中国蓬勃发展的"山寨"文化。

该服务将重点采集以下山寨信息：山寨明星、适合山寨恋人约会的时间地点、山寨发明创造和山寨流行语。

谷歌称，该计划的目标是：鸟看全球信息，使人人皆可山寨并从中受益。为此，他们培训了31,415,926只"谷鸽"，并将为它们配备四大高科技装备，其中包括装有全球定位系统(GPS)的智能导航帽、装有分散式人工智慧体(CADIE，这是谷歌发布的另一项"假冒"技术)芯片的信息处理肚兜等。

任何人想召唤谷鸽，都可"走到户外或楼顶超过20平方米的空地，用支持上网功能的手机打开谷歌移动版http://g.cn/，对着手机屏幕上出现的麦克风图标，使用鸽子的方法，"咕──咕──咕──"大叫三声，谷鸽会在20分钟内出现（除非出现技术故障或鸽子正处于昏睡状态）。

为避免引发隐私纠纷，如果你不想被谷鸽打扰，可以从网上下载"谷鸽别烦我"的折纸挂件图样自行制作，一旦看到谷鸽，就在窗前高高挥舞折纸示意即可。

谷歌称，为庆祝"谷鸽鸟看"项目正式发布，公司的中文博客"谷歌黑板报"从即日起更名为"谷鸽山寨日报"。
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