April Fools?

CNNMoney.com managing editor Allen Wastler tells us that April Fools' Day can be a dreadful time for anyone trying to cover the news. I'm starting to know how he feels.

Here are three news items I wonder about:

In-Sleep Advertising: According to eMarketer (via MIT Advertising Lab), the market for advertising in your dreams will grow from under $1 million in 2005 to over $3 billion in 2020.

Facebook for Sale for $2 Billion: BusinessWeek started a big stir by reporting that the extremely popular college and high school social networking site Facebook is holding out to be acquired for as much as $2 billion. Taking all the fun out of this speculation, paidConent.org and The Deal have questioned the story. Discussion about this dubious acquisition in-the-making goes on despite Facebook founder and CEO's proclamation that "I'm in this to build something cool, not to get bought." Good for him, but as we learned at DEMO, it's now posh for all startups to say they're in this to build something, not just to be acquired.

The Google Romance Question: It's been a while since anyone's talked about "the Google question" (the question venture capitalists ask entrepreneurs, "what happens if Google does what you're doing?" -- covered by NY Times and countered by Jason Calacanis). Now, all of the companies Computing the Mysteries of Attraction such as Match.com and eHarmony must be asking themselves that same question since Google Romance (in beta of course) has just been launched. After all, as Google points out, "love is just another search problem." Try running a Google Romance search to discover just how much validity the Google question actually has.

Don't write off all of these stories though. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak filed their partnership papers on April Fools' Day in 1976. Imagine if we'd written them off with just a snarky post.