Foremost... my name is Blair and I am a Google Fanboy!
I use Google's wonderful offerings for almost everything I do online. I use Gmail for my email needs and Google Apps for my consulting business. Wifey and I share Google Docs and Google Calendars to help keep organized. I read all of my news feeds using Google Reader. I develop web applications using Google App Engine. I use Picasa for my image sharing need and this blog is powered by Blogger!
However, as of late I've fallen victim to some issues I've only read about online. One afternoon I found myself looking at a server error page for about six hours instead of my email inbox!! Everyone around me at the time that also use Gmail were unaffected. You can imagine how annoyed I was.
Lately, I have also noticed that my general Google experience has become less than optimal. In Gmail, loading pages and performing actions on emails such as archiving take noticeably longer than they used to. My Google calendars sometimes don't load and adding events takes a while. I've had my web applications on Google App Engine not be available and some spreadsheets in Google Docs show odd behavior when editing.
On one hand I take my hat off to the fine developers and the hard work that goes into these free online utilities. On the other hand, considering I use these tools for personal, work, and business needs, it is important that they work consistently well! Not being able to access my email for over six hours was unacceptable!
These recent issues have, unfortunately, shaken my faith in the stability of the products I so love. I've started looking into alternatives and that makes me sad. I tell myself that perhaps the folks at Google had their fingers in too many pots and were working on too many new things at once. This may be the case considering there are some services like Google Wave being discontinued. Perhaps Google has recognized the need to refocus on stability of their most heavily used products.
I would hate to have to jump off of the Google ship after all this time.
However, as of late I've fallen victim to some issues I've only read about online. One afternoon I found myself looking at a server error page for about six hours instead of my email inbox!! Everyone around me at the time that also use Gmail were unaffected. You can imagine how annoyed I was.
Lately, I have also noticed that my general Google experience has become less than optimal. In Gmail, loading pages and performing actions on emails such as archiving take noticeably longer than they used to. My Google calendars sometimes don't load and adding events takes a while. I've had my web applications on Google App Engine not be available and some spreadsheets in Google Docs show odd behavior when editing.
On one hand I take my hat off to the fine developers and the hard work that goes into these free online utilities. On the other hand, considering I use these tools for personal, work, and business needs, it is important that they work consistently well! Not being able to access my email for over six hours was unacceptable!
These recent issues have, unfortunately, shaken my faith in the stability of the products I so love. I've started looking into alternatives and that makes me sad. I tell myself that perhaps the folks at Google had their fingers in too many pots and were working on too many new things at once. This may be the case considering there are some services like Google Wave being discontinued. Perhaps Google has recognized the need to refocus on stability of their most heavily used products.
I would hate to have to jump off of the Google ship after all this time.
0 comments:
Post a Comment