Google announced a novel way to access the Internet - via the toilet - in an April Fool's Day gag on its website on April 1. The Mountain View, California-based technology concern introduced its "Dark Porcelain" project, with self-installed Internet access via computer users' household plumbing.
The "Toilet Internet Service Provider" (TiSP) project highlighted on Google's webpage is "a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system."
"We've got that whole organising-the-world's-information thing more or less under control," the website says, quoting Google co-founder and President Larry Page.
The company hailed the breakthrough technology "that takes advantage of pre-existing plumbing and sewage systems and their related hydraulic data-transmission capabilities."
"There's actually a thriving little underground community that's been studying this exact solution for a long time," said Page.
"And today our Toilet ISP team is pleased to be leading the way through the sewers, up out of your toilet and - splat - right onto your PC."