The Next Web

Don’t you just love April 1st? Google is heading for Mars

Written on April 1, 2008 – 8:31 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Google has always been an ambitious company. You have to just listen to one of their WiFi stories and you know what I mean. So I wasn’t really surprised when Larry Page announced in January that they would team up with the one and only Sir Richard Branson. Especially since Branson had told us earlier that he wanted to use the web for his green crusade. “It’s an exciting project”, said mr. Branson back then. “Page also hopes to devote money to renewable energy, and that’s an area in which we’ll definitely collaborate.” The project was named Virgle.

For some reason, the domain Virgle.com wasn’t registered yet. Reason enough for Boris to jump in and claim the domain. It now forwards to the post I wrote in January.

Ok, so today is April 1st. A few weeks ago, Boris and I were driving back from PLUGG in Brussels and we talked about organizing an April 1st joke. ‘Why not use that domain Virgle.com?”, Boris asked. We came up with a plan, and we’re planning on writing about how Virgle was sold to Google and Branson. Yet due to the busy times and preparations for the Next Web Conference (only two days left!) this plan never made it to the drawing table.

In the end that doesn’t really matter, since Branson and Page have decided to use Virgle for an April’s fool themselves! Branson wrote an article on the official Google Blog at 12:01 am today, saying:

In my life, I’ve had a lot of exciting adventures and launched a lot of ambitious business ventures. I’m delighted today to announce Virgle, Inc., a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google which qualifies on both counts. Virgle’s goal is simple: the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars.

The guys from Google are taking the joke pretty far, at least one employee must have worked on this project for a week considering the extensive plan they’ve designed. It comes down to this though:

In the years to come, we’ll be sending up a series of spaceships carrying (along with the supplies and tools needed to build the new colony) what eventually will be hundreds of Mars colonists, or Virgle Pioneers — myself among them.

Truth be told, I’m glad we didn’t use Virgle for April’s fool. We couldn’t have done such a neat job like Page and Branson did. Enjoy the hysteria guys.

I hope you like that post!

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april's fool, google, larry page, mars, richard branson, virgle

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Google + kite-surfing + environment + Virgin = Virgle

Written on January 4, 2008 – 5:59 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Update: Virgle is an April’s fools stunt. Read the background here.

As Gizmodo wrote today, Branson is partnering up with Google-founder Larry Page. Their secret project, named Virgle, is ‘a scheme with an environmental bent’. “It’s an exciting project, says mr. Branson. “Page also hopes to devote money to renewable energy, and that’s an area in which we’ll definitely collaborate.”

Considering Page’s part in this, it probably is an Internet-based project. If so, we’re not surprised at all. Why? Because Branson told us in September that he is interested in any good pro-environment idea concerning the web.

We talked to Branson during the PICNIC’07 Green Challenge in Amsterdam. We asked him what could be the use of the Internet as a tool for environment quest.

“Funny that you ask me that question, since my company isn’t really active on the web”, Branson replied. “Although I think that the online environment community The Green Thing is really charming. I should talk with those guys later.”

The Green Thing is a social network build by well-respected and talented designers, copy writers and marketeers. They try to make people more aware of the environment by sending them a small monthly task - such as: turn the lights off when you leave the room.

Branson: “If they can present it in a fashionable way, it will probably have a huge influence on the lifestyle of a great number of people.”

He ended the conversation with an invitation: “If you guys have a good idea to contribute to my quest for renewable energy trough the Internet, I’d be happy to support you”.

Looks like Larry Page came up with a pretty good idea during their kite-surf sessions.

environment, google, green thing, larry page, richard branson, virgin, virgle

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