Earlier today in a posting on whether Google (News - Alert) is planning to pay us for clicking on ads, I hopefully established that in the spirit of April Fools’ day a little lightheartedness is certainly in order. In keeping with that theme I have to admit I am a bit jealous of the talents of others to lend their impishness to the chorus of those looking to create a bit of jocularity today.

In fact, there are not one but two items that you really should read. 

The Industry Analyst Robot

The first posting that should bring a big smile is by Phil Ferscht, founder and CEO of Hfs Research. As an  ICT industry analyst of many years myself, he had me with the headline, HfS and Blue Prism partner to develop automated analyst solutions. What was even better is that all I had to do was look at the picture at the top of the posting to know I was in for a treat. 

I will resist from spoiling a great read. But to lure you into clicking the link above, try this on for grins.

Commenting on the project, Fersht added, “We have been blown away by the results – we programmed the robot to trawl vendor websites and create complex algorithms based on their usage of technical terminology. Essentially, the more they used terms such as ‘Big Data’, ‘Transformation’, ‘Digital Solutions’, ‘Social Media’ and ‘Cloud’, the further the robot moved their position over to the right of the quadrant. Then we created an API to our accounting system, and based on how much the vendor was spending in proportion to its competitors, the robot proceeded either to raise the vendor performance towards the upper-right corner, or lower it in the direction of the lower-left. Then we checked the results with the same quadrant being run by one of our human analysts and the results were a 97 percent match”.

In a word, “awesome!”

It gets better with the description of how talented Clive the robot is in handling phone calls.

The Cat’s Meow!

In what could be called a tie, you also will get a chuckle from a contribution by Norwegian browser company Opera Software, and admire how they worked in the marketing for their real products. Again, the headline was a grabber, “Opera Software (News - Alert) launches Cats by Opera browser project.”

Opera’s  press release starts with a call to action as to why cats need to be able to browse the Internet which is wonderfully tongue-in-cheek.  

It then hits its stride, “I noticed that my cat Admiral Fluffington III had a peculiar interest in the Coast by Opera web browser left open on my iPad,” says Huib Kleinhout, Senior Cat Coder at Opera Software. “When we go to work, my cat was just left at home with iPads sitting on the coffee table. It just made sense to give them something better to do other than snooze or cough-up hairballs. Now they can interact with the web, which is 92.3 percent cats anyways. That’s when I got the idea for Cats by Opera, based on our incredibly innovative Coast by Opera browser for iPad. My other cats, Pistols McMegatron and Dr. Snuggles, also love it.”

There is also the video below.

It got even better with the description of the functionality.

“Cats by Opera project brings more innovation through the internet cat-flap door:

• TongueTouch®: Interface optimized to respond on the slightest of screen licks, for easy scrolling.
•  PawPredict®: Intelligent interpretation of internet adresses and searches as entered by our feline friends, translating adresses such as “34lkr34tottttt4<<<....uuuu” into “www.catnip4u.com” when walking all over the iPad keyboard.
• Catimized Speed Dial: Cats by Opera features easy-to click Speed Dial buttons, an Opera Software invention, with quick access to selected cat content or for easy shortcuts to your cats’ own favorite sites.

“This is a totally unexplored technology area, where Opera Software can be a first mover,” says Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “A high-cAtRPU cat market such as UK has more than ten million cats, according to the 2006 UK Cat Census*. In the end, does it really matter who or what the consumer is? For me, the most interesting content on the internet is made by animals, and especially cats. They create some fantastic videos on YouTube (News - Alert). This is a big opportunity for us to get a lot more users. A hairy project, but very doable.”

If you see anything else that strikes either your or your pet’s fancy today, please use the comments section to share the links.

Happy April Fools’ Day!