Google's idea of humour: Shutting down YouTube!

It's that day of the year when misleading people is 'legal'. Google gets into the April Fool's day prank mode with the declaration of the end of YouTube.

The world's most popular video site announces that it's been nothing but a contest site this whole time and says it's shutting down for the next decade.

Google also unveiled some of its pranks on Sunday, which include launching a scent-based search engine- Google Nose and a treasure map layer on Google Maps among other fake announcements.

The biggest of all has to be the YouTube announcement that indicates that the product has been nothing but a contest to find the best video, and the 8-year-long submission period is finally closing tonight.

The company teamed up with The Onion to create a YouTube-star-studded video explaining how the site was set up as part of a contest to find the best home video on the Internet.

"I encourage everybody to watch as many videos as possible before YouTube deletes everything tonight," Antoine Dodson, a popular internet celebrity warns.

The video is elaborate with many Youtube sensations like Matt Harding and the kids from "Charlie Bit My Finger" featuring in it.

"We are so close to the end," Tom Liston, communications director at YouTube, said in the video.

"Tonight at midnight, YouTube.com will no longer be accepting entries," he added.

The video also mentioned that the site will be reviewed by a panel of judges and it will take 10 years to watch them all. The winner will be announced in 2023, when the site finally comes back online.

This was a possible brainchild of Google after seeing the reaction Google Reader caused when its retirement was announced.

Past examples of the search giant’s annual April Fools’ Day pranks have included the roll out of an 8-bit Nintendo-style version of Google maps, supposedly putting all YouTube videos on DVD and the creation of self-driving NASCAR race cars.

Watch the video: