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Glitch Has Users Fuming, Google 'Frantic'
netbuzz writes "A problem with Google's Personalized Home Page feature has apparently cost a lot of users their carefully crafted doors to the Internet. And Google, which says it is frantically searching for a fix, also acknowledges that it is not sure if it will be able to recover the lost settings. 'The problem is the latest in what seems a regular stream of technical glitches and availability problems affecting Google's online services. In the past six months, Google services like Blogger, Gmail and Google Apps have all experienced significant technical issues that have left users fuming. The problems highlight one of the risks of relying on hosted applications providers, which offer to house software and its data for individuals and organizations. Google is one of the biggest cheerleaders for this software provisioning model, which many see as a viable option to the traditional approach of having users install applications on their own PCs and servers.'"
why storing all your data on some company's servers is a good idea?
So 3 different apps have 1 hiccup each over the course of 6 months. If only my desktop applications were so reliable. I can't even count how many paragraphs in Word I've lost due to crashes, or how many settings I've lost in Gnome from random bugs. I don't see what the fuss is, it's still a matter of "shit happens" only Google seems to be rather responsive about it all.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
That's what they said when gmail mail was disappearing. All of the mail (IIRC) was recovered.
This is just basic CYA. If they promise that the data will come back, then they're legally obligated to restore it.
Most companies just would have not issued any kind of statement until they already knew what the problem was.
This announcement is a GOOD THING(tm).
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Well, as mentioned in the summary, "The problems highlight one of the risks of relying on hosted applications providers, which offer to house software and its data for individuals and organizations."
While computers do break down, but my broken Firefox browser doesn't affect yours.
I felt a great disturbance in the GoogleNet, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
And don't count your chickens before they hatch.
Google has never made any binding promises about the availability of many of its services or the data that users entrust to them. If Google loses all your email, tough noogies. They are not accountable. Stop pretending that they are.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Just use netvibes...they provide a link in setting to backup or export all of your feeds etc.
Maybe because over the course of a few months or years, Google's uptime is a lot higher than my company's servers?
The problems highlight one of the risks of relying on hosted applications providers, which offer to house software and its data for individuals and organizations.
How is that a problem? Whether you rely on someone else's computer or your own, there's just as much risk -- it just happens to be in a different place. If anything I'd like to believe that Google's network of servers is much more reliable than my home PC.
Just how much do people have invested here? I haven't experienced the glitch yet, but if I did it would take me all of five minutes to set up my settings the way I want them again. It really doesn't strike me as being as big a deal as everyone says it is. I mean, all of the services Google offers are absolutely free. Does anyone really have any right to complain about something they're getting for free? Well, of course they have the right, let me rephrase that: people shouldn't complain about stuff that they get for free. :P
An object at rest cannot be stopped.
Are these the same users who don't backup their computers at home, the same users who save their work on the local drive at work which gets wiped rather than their network drive. People who expect IT to just magically work forever without any problems ever and without any effort on their part? And in this case for free?
Sorry, but I have no sympathy for them.
Gmail is free. So is Hotmail and Yahoo. But Gmail is currently the most convenient and reliable. Google invests millions in making the system work as well as it does. Much better and reliably then most companies IT departments out there manage to do. And people still complain?
If you don't like it, why don't you run your friggin' own mail server and backup racks and see how well you manage! And try doing that on a zero budjet...
www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
This exactly the reason I don't believe all these reports that Google's (Or other) online apps will take over from local software. Sure online word processing can be handy, but if the network breaks, or their servers do you've got no comeback. If Gmail broke tomorrow and everyone lost all their e-mails (and logins to websites etc) there would be mass problems and loads of people would be really annoyed. But there wouldn't be much we could do about it, I'm sure in the eula we're not allowed to sue for lost data etc because that would be crazy if everyone did. At least if its local you have someone to blame/punch....
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Contronyms: for people who sanction opposites
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What many of us don't realize is the fact that depending on a large service provider such as Google for applictions provision may actually leave us quite vulnerable. What we are doing is putting all our eggs in one basket. If Google goes down, your business processes crash with it. eBay lost a lot in revenues when its servers crashed a few years ago. If there were a peer-to-peer e-commerce model, people would feel more secure and less dependent on others for commerce. Imagine storing all your information on your own hard-drive, and selling products to others WITHOUT paying ebay fees! Ultimate empowerment implies physical independence. Until that happens, we are all vulnerable.
Now here's one iPoddy site! iPod Range
From my perspective as an individual Google services are more reliable than any of my desktop apps. I think I've had about 2 times where I couldn't log in and check my email. I waited five minutes and was able to check it without any issues. From all I've read I haven't heard of outages much more than a few minutes so far. Lost data sometimes happens when working online, but that happens with desktop apps as well. I don't really see a drawback on an individual perspective. It's on a group perspective that internet apps like Google's services are really noticed. If the service goes down it isn't just affecting you, it's affecting everyone that uses it. Besides that though there really isn't a downside to using this free service beyone that. It's a wierd dualistic view that wouldn't always work from a business perspective, but for personal home use Google offers unsurpassed features per dollar.
And no one has ever lost data using a commercial desktop app before ...
"but it's beta...."
And it's a free service too, isn't it?
Chicken fried butter sticks? Do
I'd agree with you if Google's personal homepage was just a set of links etc and other basic HTML+CSS content. However, as an intermediate web developer, even I would have to take quite some time to develop the applets they offer by myself, like learning how to interface with the Gmail account, RSS feeds, and weather web services. It's really not newbie friendly to make on your own.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
In Microsoft's case in particular, their monopoly means that they have an extra responsibility not to screw up, because the "whole world" depends on them. Of course, Microsoft doesn't accept that, but many people believe they should. Google may have reached that point for some features, like search, but even mail is only recently out of beta and open for general signup without an invite or restrictions. But the current problem doesn't affect either search or mail.The comparison in the parent post, ignoring salient details and jumping to conclusions without much consideration, would be right at home on Bill O'Reilly! Perhaps you've found your true home!
They are called typos. They happen. If you want mod points for OT nit-picking at least say something funny. There should be a rule. I'm mean if I'm going to waste my time at work, throw me a bone.
Quack, quack.
A widely known "fact"? "Safe to say"? Linking to some bloggers is now evidence of said "fact"?? You make value judgments based on how many articles you found in technorati? No wonder you posted as AC.
I've been around long enough to remember an early version of MS-Word that had a glitch that sometimes turned all of its content into nice little asterisks. Completely unrecoverable. I had to wait several months to get a version that didn't have that particular little feature. With a webapp it would've at least been fixed and released within days of discovery FOR ALL USERS with no patches or installs required.
My company has switched some key applications from desktop to webtop and we couldn't be happier. Overall downtime is considerably less than the equivalent desktop app and it doesn't require any of my IT staff to manage.
Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
I think you're missing his point. Remotely hosting content opens people up to risks. He's going for the difference between outlook / thunderbird and gmail, and he makes a reasonable point. If my computer breaks down, I'm the fool who didn't back up. When a hosted solution goes down, everyone loses. It's not rocket science deduction he's doing, but it's still relevant to the overall point that Google goes down, service providers are inherently unreliable to some extent, and, as you said, life goes on. Unless it's me, and THEN I'm pissed.
Mozy, free online backup service
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"Shit happens", that's true. You should always be prepared. You should always backup.
But... if Google lost everyone's email messages from the last 6 months would it be fair of Google to say "well you should've backed it all up"? After all, what is Gmail if not a purely-online, searchable e-mail archive?
You can't expect users to be prepared for their archive to be destroyed, right? If Google wants me to manage my e-mail online, they can't expect me to download it all too, just in case.
The "stream of technical glitches" described in the article, albeit overstressed, is pointing at something that should worry us: If the software market is going towards online services, where data is centralized and 1 server down means 1,000 users down - what strategic steps do we take in order to protect our users and our data?
Bill Gates Has No Penis.
Ok, maybe I'm missing what everyone is saying here. I keep seeing things like "remotely hosting content opens people up to risks" as if locally hosted content doesn't. There are risks regardless of whether information is hosted.
...and you're still the fool for not backing it up. If you keep your information in one place, you risk losing it if something happens to that place. I see now, mainly because you pointed it out not because I can understand what the hell that line meant, that his point was that many people can be affected by a crash when information is hosted remotely. However, the article wasn't about the affect it has on the masses but instead seemed to be about the affects it had on individuals. I think that is going down a different road, but either way the initial point is still valid in that it isn't news. I don't think anyone has trouble understanding that if a million people have their information hosted on a website and that website loses the information, then a million people's (peoples'?) information has just been lost.
If my computer breaks down, I'm the fool who didn't back up. When a hosted solution goes down, everyone loses.
So people are "fuming" that their personalized news page and other crap, which is free, and mostly in beta, had a minor glitch and now they'll have to spend two minutes setting up their precious, precious settings again.
/.
Let me fix it for you...
So people are "fuming" that their personalized settings which they've set up just the way they want to so long ago they forgot how they did it, and which they've been encouraged to use for free so Google can make advertising revenue, but are perpetually in beta with more possibility of Duke Nukem Forever coming out than the beta phase ending, was hosed and now they'll have to spend a few hours working with shitty configurations to work out what their precious settings were again.
I bet you don't have any time invested in configuring this software and weren't affected. Nice to see so much empathy on
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Until the internet is 100 percent bulletproof, web based apps will never fly, period.
Uh, right. Google is way more reliable than Windows, and I've never heard anyone claim Windows as 100% bullet-proof. Guess we're already there.
.....that Google goes down......
Go back 30 years and substitute "the mainframe goes down". That's how it was before the "personal computer" was invented. Now we'll come full circle. The same system, one central computer and many users, and with it one central point of failure.
With a personal computer each user has more control over their information, but also more responsibility. There is a lot more "stuff" between my data stored by Google and my keyboard/monitor than the data store on the HD on my computer. A local HD or better still a good RAID storage system is still WAY more reliable than all the technology that needs to work correctly for the Google approach.
When there is a power outage here, we have UPS/Generator backup. However that is useless for the Internet, since the data multiplexer box about a quarter mile from here doesn't have any sort of backup. It just quits. The old POTS and dial up still work, but that will not sustain any serious work on any remote server. As far as the Internet goes, we're just held incommunicado until the power comes back.
Until the Internet becomes at LEAST as reliable as the good old fashioned phone, Internet applications will have no appeal to anyone who values reliability and accessibility to their data.
All theory is gray
Yes, exactly. That is NOT funny but insightful. Almost all of these services are in beta. What the hell are you doing using Gmail for your corporate services?
Yeah. This is why we keep all our softwares at beta level so that when something goes terribly wrong, we can always make statements like "but it's only beta." Wasn't beta somewhere, sometime, thing that said "this is not production ready"? It sure doesn't mean that anymore.
You don't know what you don't know.
wasn't the first sign of skynet a loss of performance and outages in large distributed computing networks?
I wonder how much more of this can we take before forgetting Terminator was really a movie and start a religion based upon it.
I bet the Bible started this way.