The Web is a great medium for April Fools Day jokes and posts, and the practice of trying to dupe visitors is so widespread that even the Apple rumor sites, known for being susceptible already, warn their visitors not to be gullible on this day. Starting late last night, as it became April 1st in the UK and then on the East coast of the United States, there have been some amusing trends in the Web related to this day.

By far, one of the best was for geek news site Slashdot to revise their page style from techie green to bright pink in an effort to enhance their demographics. The site, now bubble gum pink screams of OMG!!! PONIES!!!, reviews of the OC, emoticons and LOL! As they wrote, "Our marketing department has done extensive research over the last 3 quarters and discovered that our audience is strangely disproportionately skewed towards males. Like, 98.3% males to be precise."

Appropriately, they've featured stories from The Register, who said that China had put in a bid to purchase all of Google's Class B shares. The site also wrote that in a more serious matter, that Bush and his cronies had devised a plan to extend his presidency beyond 2008. Google kept up their tradition of mischief themselves, debuting a faux service called Google Romance, which involves contextual text advertising and help from highly paid relationship consultants.

Wired gets into the act through displaying the Top Ten Internet Spoofs of all time, and offers a chaser with a gallery of Apple's most rabid fans. Both fun.

Update: News.com has summarized some of the stories that got them laughing as well.

Listening to ''Fascinated (Martin Eyeyer Remi'', by Raven Maize (Play Count: 14)

As an A's fan, I'm used to the team being underestimated before the start of the baseball season, and the team surprising all the doubters with a tremendous run. Last year, the team was compared to the lowly Kansas City Royals, and widely anticipated to finish in last place in the American League West. Instead, despite a rash of injuries to key players, the A's youngsters far outperformed expectations and the team finished with an 88-74 record, good enough for second place in the division, and at one point in August, owned the division's best mark.

Now, only a few days away from Opening Day against the Yankees, the A's off-season changes and player experience has vaulted them into the favorites category by a lot of sports experts - not the least of which is ESPN, the sports media monolith. While this week's issue of Sports Illustrated picks the A's to win their division, and defeat the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs, only to lose to the White Sox, who they have pegged to repeat as World Series champions, ESPN offers no limits on their expectations for the men in green and gold. In their cover story for the magazine's April 10th issue, titled, "The Hot Pick: In 2006, the A's are Money".

In fact, ESPN's love for the A's goes beyond a single cover story. In the media site's "expert predictions", three selected the A's to win the World Series, and only a pair said the A's wouldn't reach the playoffs at all. Every other writer had them pegged as the division champs or wild card winner, and most were leaning to the former. Additionally, four of the writers said that ace pitcher Rich Harden would capture the Cy Young award, while another said Eric Chavez would garner the Most Valuable Player trophy.

All of this positive media coverage is confusing to us diehard fans, accustomed to rooting for an underdog. Now, as an avid Athletics Nation member and partial season ticket holder, I've already received a number of inquiries for potential unused tickets and games are already being booked months in advance. I expect to watch our team fulfill its destiny and win it all for the first time since 1989.

Listening to ''Back to Basics'', by 4 Strings (Play Count: 17)

I'm a huge fan of dry, satirical humor, and at times, it seems the British have a monopoly on the best comedy out there - ranging from the infamous Monty Python series to Absolutely Fabulous and of course, The Office, which we discovered on BBC America in 2003, and quickly couldn't get enough of - as the mockumentary chronicled Ricky Gervais as a ridiculous boss of a paper company in Slough, Britain, who tries to augment his dead-end career through being the most popular morale booster in the office, even if he is completely oblivious to the fact nobody finds him amusing and is generally appalled by his behavior.

The show had two solid seasons and seemed to come and go so quickly - especially as I felt we had just latched onto what we considered the best comedy on TV, whether domestic or not. And somehow, we missed the network's airing of a special 1 hour., 35 minute finale that aimed to tie up all the loose ends - what happened with Gervais after being removed from his position, and of course, not only his quest for love, but that of his colleagues. While not as side-splittingly funny as some of the show's classic episodes, the office special, which we rented from NetFlix, definitely had some amusing moments and is a must-see for any fan of the Office, who may not have seen the show to its conclusion.

Listening to ''No Fate'', by Scooter (Play Count: 4)

From Survey USA:



So, as long as you stay out of Utah, Alabama and Wyoming, you could go coast to coast in the US and not run into a state where Bush's popularity rating is above fifty percent. It's not about red state vs. blue state any more. The whole country is blue - we're practically suffocating.

More here: Daily Kos: GOP Starts to Sour on Bush

Listening to ''Thomas Trouble'', by Echoes (Play Count: 7)