Arrogance, thy name is Google

jason1178, in addition to being the "Vice-President of IT for a company you've never heard of", did a stint as a Community Advisor at Experts Exchange, and suffers the slings and arrows of the Los Angeles Dodgers' outrageous fortune.

Take an internet giant, free services, and add some less than thoughtful engineering and you have a customer service disaster.

Don't get me wrong ... for the most part I love Google. They offer so many useful and free services to the community that it's hard not to love them when you think about it. But as they grow and encounter growing pains, they sometimes do things that affect users in a very negative way and leave a bad taste in their mouths for some time.

Recently, administrators of Google Apps for the Domain (Gmail, Calendar, Docs under your own domain name) have been seeing prompts to transition their Google Apps to a new infrastructure that promises that more services will be made available to the GAFD users. Sounds good, right? However, there's a pretty big catch that Google does a very poor job explaining prior to the transition.

If you have ever used your organization account to access a Google service that was not part of GAFD before, you are going to have big, big problems as soon as you undergo the transition. In short, the Domain Migration kills email accounts until you go through a ball-bustingly confusing reconcillation process if you ever used your GAFD email address to open an account in a separate Google service like Picassa, etc.

I've owed a personal domain name for years now and when I discovered GAFD, I naturally converted my domain to it.When I saw the prompt to migrate, I did so without any concern ... I trusted Google. The result was that both my wife and I were unable use POP3 or IMAP to access our email accounts for several hours because each of us had Google services opened under those email addresses. Once we migrated, the emails were disabled for POP3 and IMAP but we were still able to access Reader, Picassa, etc. Other users have bigger problems as their Android Marketplace purchases are now effectively in limbo and inaccessible and the Android phones themselves are wiped out and have to be reset.

Google terms people like me as having "conflicting accounts" because I have myname@mydomain.com under GAFD and I also used it to login to Picasa to share photos once upon a time. In order to get my email address working again, I had to "resolve the conflicting account" by creating a brand new Gmail account (myothername@gmail.com) for the old Picasa stuff. Huh? I'm still me, last time I checked ... why do I need to create yet another email account because Google can't figure out that myname@mydomain.com and myname@mydomain.com with the same password are the same person?

And to drive the point home, Google disables access to my email until I do create the second account because I'm also not allowed to merge accounts with an existing Gmail account? And there's no plan to allow for the data to be merged, either now or later. Madness.

This is the sort of customer service nightmare we have come to expect from Microsoft or Adobe, but not Google. It's like being bitten by the family dog, all the worse because it is so unexpected. Futhermore, if you migrate all (in my case, two) accounts in a domain, you are unable to revert them back unless you contact Google at a link that as of October 9, 2010 was merely redirecting to the Google home page. A second link does exist that works but a) you have to really dig in the support forum to find it (the official help files have the wrong link); and b) at the time of this writing, users have been waiting for more than 5 days to have their domains reverted. Whether this is due to overwhelming demand, laziness on Google's part, or both is unknown.

I'm not alone in being upset with the transition and if you read any of the threads in the previous link, you will see a lot of unhappy users and some pretty clueless Google folks attempting to help them. One of the highlights that can be printed here that pretty much sums up everyone's experience is from bahab:

So far, we have a pretty standard upset user. That's nothing new. But instead of helping bahab resolve his issue, here was the response which has since been deleted:

Niiiiiiiiiice, Google. Bahab wasn't too pleased with that response:

I could go on and on with quote after quote from the support board. I strongly recommend everyone go read it and watch the transition of the Google responses from the earliest complaints to the most recent ones. In it, you will see a cautionary tale of a company that it so large and so used to being right, that they insist they are right even when they clearly aren't and their customers suffer for it.

I leave you with this lovely rant from migdalorguy:

Indeed. Beware the power of the little people, Google. There are a lot more of us than there are of you.

Embracing Obsolescence

Last week, Caroline McCarthy of c|net wrote an interesting little column about Facebook that was titled Will Facebook have a 'vestigial limb' problem?. The upshot is that as Facebook adds features, there are some things that will hang around, even though they're more or less obsolete.

It's an old argument; the automobile companies have been dealing with people who like standard transmissions for years, and there are just enough of us to force them to make vehicles that have that third pedal. No doubt the movie companies would like to forget the people who don't own wide-screen televisions, because it means they have to make a "standard" screen version of the DVDs they sell. You can still buy a 56k modem -- but it's almost as cheap to buy a wireless card and use something like the Palm Pre as a cell phone (which everyone seems to have) and WiFi hotspot.

It isn't just Facebook. Take a look at Microsoft. How much of the stuff that comes standard with a computer nowadays is there to replace programs that exist as part of the Windows operating system? Adobe is another one; we've looked through most of the CS4 suite, and we can't find anything in it that compels me to upgrade from CS2 (except that someone else gave me a license because we do some work for them).

It isn't just big companies either. We used to work for a company for whom we have a tremendous amount of respect; in the ten years or so we have been associated with them, they have reinvented themselves at least three times, always to stay ahead of their competitors and in tune with what their customers need. Nonetheless, there are still some systems and processes that, were they starting today with what they know, they wouldn't have; there hasn't been any reason to have them for years. Even when we ran newspapers -- we went through four major changes in technology (raised type to offset printing to phototypesetting to computers) in about twenty-five years -- there were things we did that had their roots in the way we had done things all the way along (like using Kodak black and white film instead of getting digital cameras).

There are arguments both ways. Do you get rid of those old features that -- for whatever reason -- are obsolete, knowing full well that a small minority uses them, knowing you're always going to have to account for them when you do any kind of updating, and knowing you will feel the wrath of that minority's displeasure if you get rid of them?

Or do you keep them, knowing that they're going to be a nuisance (at best), knowing that they will force you to sometimes have two parallel, more or less identical systems, that do the same thing only slightly differently, and knowing that you're going to be spending resources to make sure both sets of processes work right for everyone?

We have been around our favorite website for quite a while now, and we've seen the apoplexy caused by mere redesigns (does anyone remember the orange/green/black/gray look that isn't the current Premium Services look? -- or even the Blue Look that both preceded, and in a different layout, succeeded it?). We've seen the infamous "Answer button" come and go -- twice. Each time something changes, we have read that "everyone hates it" -- but somehow, the site has thrived despite all the changes.

Still, we have to wonder how necessary it is to have two versions of features. There's an old story in the automobile business about a company that did all the research, and asked all the right questions of its customers, and after doing so, came up with the Edsel. Customers have a funny way of telling you what they want right before they start telling you how much they hate what you've done.

In their recently published book Rework, authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson argued that one of the best things you can do for your business is to simply say "No."

"People avoid saying no because confrontation makes them uncomfortable," they wrote. "But the alternative is even worse. You drag things out, make things complicated, and work on ideas you don't believe in. It's like a relationship: Breaking one up is hard to do, but staying in it just because you're too chicken to drop the ax is even worse." The devil you know is easier to cope with than the devil you don't know.

Almost everyone wants to be Apple. Say what you want about the Mac, poke fun at the iPhone (we do), and be at the ready to cite the next time he doesn't act like the Marketing Genius or Digital Messiah -- but the fact is that Jobs and Apple don't sell products; they sell their passion.

That passion is for elegant, clean interfaces on digital products that just work. Because they believe in their products with the fervor of an Alabama football fan, others believe in them as well, and Apple can drop support for old technology, knowing full well that people will go out and buy the product Apple has built to replace it.

You won't find any covered-over eyes on an Apple device -- and given the company's success, the message should be pretty clear. If you can't fix what isn't working, get rid of it, but better yet, don't include it in the first place.

More News and Notes

The best defense is a good offense: Something about this defense against DoS attackes is entirely too elegant. Speak-Up uses the novel approach of demanding more, bigger requests from attackers than the attackers are likely to have available -- effectively turning them into the wimps they really are. There's a paper that describes the whole method.

Because we can never resist arrogant punks being hoist by their own petard: Has anyone seen the Faceborg movie? Does anyone mind that Mark Zuckerborg isn't happy with it? We'll come up with a special EE prize for the wittiest, funniest review; write a 300-word article in the Digital Living zone about it (if you've seen it) by Monday, November 1, and our crack staff of judges will pick the one they like the best. Unfortunately, you won't be able to wait for it to come out in 3D.

Help Wanted: Someone to supplement George Will: The Washington Post is looking for The Next Great Pundit.

Please don't tell us you're that surprised: Iran's first nuclear power plan was infected by a virus designed specifically to at a minimum disrupt productivity. Given that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a history of strong opinions about the US and the western nations in general, it's hardly surprising that the Mideast nation called the worm a Western plot, but security experts downplayed that, saying as an attack, it was pretty amateurish and adding that the US is just as vulnerable -- but there are cynics who are unconvinced. In an interesting bit of serendipity, the Iranian power plant had a "small leak", but denies it had anything to do with the worm.

Happy Birthday: The Palo Alto Research Company, AKA PARC -- the wonderful people who brought you laser printing, the GUI and the ethernet. Without them, we would all be in better shape, energy driks wouldn't be a vending machine staple, and Facebook wouldn't exist.

Because I'm not much good at this whole "revenue stream" thing: Ev Williams, the CEO of Twitter, has announced that he is turning over the keyboard to COO Dick Costolo, who started Feedburner and then sold it to Google, so Williams can now concentrate on "pushing product direction". Maybe now he can concentrate on figuring out why Twitter users are so enamored with the letters W, T and F in connection with goats.

Fun and games with Google Instant: or... Why the word you typed in doesn't do anything...

All it takes is a headset and a mic (unless you can find a refurbished one): We might finally have a reason to start playing around with the iTouch we got a couple of years ago; there's now an app available that turns it into an iPhone (kinda) for less than $10 a month. It's not new, but it has been improved, and the price has been cut. Then you, too, can be a People Of Apple. And while we're picking on the iPhone... apparently, Tony Curtis's family has found they work everywhere else. Thanks, Jason! Oh, and One more thing: Apple may or may not be developing an iPhone for Verizon.

Yoda lives! (Thanks, Jason!)

We know what we said, but we were worong: Verizon Wireless is going to refund $50 million or so to customers who accidentally used data services. In December, the company had insisted that it didn't charge for accessing the Internet if they didn't do anything but open the browser, but that turned out to be untrue. And on the subject of wireless plans, Wal-Mart is selling one, but it doesn't come with someone greeting you when you log in.

WARNING: Politics alert: In case you're wondering why California's budget is in so much trouble, you can start by looking at salaries and then doing some math. We found this little treasure trove of information when we came across a study that says that people who make less money for more work aren't as satisfied with their jobs as their better-paid colleagues. Go figure.

Just because we're not so young any more... and while we're at it, a guarantee that your humble editor will always have things to write about.

We know just what to do about it: There's an old joke about the UN. Two small countries get in a fight; the UN steps in and there's no more fight. A big country and a little country get in a fight; the UN steps in and there's no more little country. Two big countries get in a fight; the UN steps in and there's no more UN. That's where the US Congress finds itself, declining to come to any conclusions that might interfere with campaign contributions from big bandwidth providers (on one side) and big content providers (on the other side).

Now that there are iPads, Kindles, Nooks and who knows what else: Microsoft will have the Slate out ... by Christmas. Sure thing...

With apologies to Tom Lehrer:

Sign of the Apochalypse: Researchers have found that the less reputable a website looks, the more likely people are to divulge their personal information. Also, Duke Nukem Forever is back. Maybe. There is rampant fraud in China. Who knew? And finally, only in California.

Nata's Corner

I love getting mail about the the columns I write, and I was especially happy to get an email from my buddy Vic, who sent the following about the image at right: "I know you're always keeping track of the latest technical developments and wanted to send you a picture of my latest toy. They were passing these out at the Senior Center last week and I got me a couple." Unfortunately, he didn't send me one. I guess I'll have to get my other half to get me something sparkly.

Combine the most popular website out there with the latest greatest new shiny toy, and what do you get? You get a ton of spam on your Facebook wall, and are probably halfway to losing every real friend you ever had. Don't worry, though -- the botnet guys know that if you're not in the market for a new iPhone, they'll get your attention with some XBox points.

If you have been following the papers over the last week or so, you know that US, British and Ukranian officials have arrested a good number of people in connection with the ZBot trojan, which seems to have originated in Russia. What's bothersome -- or maybe scary is a better word -- is that that there isn't a lot of evidence that the Russian governemnt wants to do anything about the rampant growth of cybercrime from within its borders. Meanwhile, Microsoft may have found a way to use the courts to shut down bot networks.

About a month ago, Tolomir, one of EE's Zone Advisors, posted about "binary planting" of DLLs and .EXE files. Microsoft has come up with a few workarounds, but as of a week ago, disabling the WebDAV service seems to be the only way to block the attacks. The security lab ACROS has an online test to see if you're vulnerable.

Finally -- and by no means does this next item mean anyone should stop using Google or anything like that -- but just because a company's motto is "Do No Evil", that doesn't mean that it doesn't have creeps working for it who will do evil things. Pay attention to what your children are doing, please.

Milestones

New Geniuses: FernandoSoto has earned his third Genius certificate, this one in LINQ, which also put him over 5,000,000 points for his EE career. Picking up his second was ralmada in SQL Server 2005. Earning their first Genius certificates were endital1097 and sunnyc7 in Exchange;, Geert_Gruwez in Delphi; noxcho in Hard Drives; and dstewartjr in Windows 2003 Server. Nicely done, folks!

My First Million: Members who have reached the 1,000,000 point level in the last month include endital1097, digitap, sunnyc7, Spec01, DrUltima, nav_kum_v, hades666, QPR and Ark.

Milestones:

• angelIII has reached 34,000,000 points. He has also reached 6,000,000 points in SQL Server 2005, the first member to go over 6,000,000 points in two zones.
• capricorn1 has moved into third place in the Hall of Fame with over 19,000,000 points.
• objects is the 20th EE member to have 2,000,000 points in at least two different topic areas.
• ozo is the 16th EE member to reach 11,000,000 points overall.
• CEHJ has earned 11,000,000 points in the Java zone.
• boag2000 has reached the 6,000,000 point level.
• brettdj has earned 4,000,000 points in Excel.