When will Google become the new Microsoft

24Sep09

I’ve been asking this question for some time now. When will Google become the next corporate monstrosity that we all love to hate? Two events from the past 24 hours tell me that time is coming.

First event. I got an email from “adwords-support”, saying that “Your account XXX-XXX-XXXX has been suspended because we’ve determined that there’s a high probability your site may be hosting or distributing malicious software.” The site sells window blinds! Honestly?! Malicious software? All you can get from that site is plain, standards compliant HTML and CSS! What a bunch of plonkers! Oh, sorry, it’s not humans that do that, is it? Or should this be, what a bunch of plonkers wrote that rubbish? Then I go to the site, and I see that it’s been blacklisted. It’s a reported “attack site”. Wait to be attacked by the avalanche of designs of blinds and awnings we have, it will blow your mind and make you fall in love with a penguin.

Anyway, that’s not the problem. Everyone gets it wrong. But this is a paid service. I have come to expect from the real world, that when I pay for service, any glitches in it would not affect my friend’s company in this MASSIVELY detrimental way. MASSIVELY detrimental. No warning! Nothing! Bang – game over! You have been shot.

The other problem is, what do I do now?? There’s a link in the e-mail, saying, if you believe this is wrong, contact us. I won’t be contacting a human though, will I? They don’t do “Customer service” there. That’s for the old fashioned, stupid companies that like to take an evening off once in a while. Plus, the damage has been done. I hope it ends up in the papers (Bulgaria is a small country).

Second event. I was busy at work, so I had forgotten about that. At lunch, I thought I’d have a look at my email on my internet enabled phone. Gmail, to be precise. I use the phone’s browser to read it, because I’m not that hot on the email client. So, only several hours after the adwords rubbish, I get a “We’re sorry, but Google Mail is temporarily unavailable. We’re currently working to fix the problem. Please try logging into your account in a few minutes.” Well, you know what, Google, I have come to rely on your Gmail thingy. Not just for email. For remembering things. It’s my external RAM. Because your search is so good. But is it, now?… It certainly was. But so was its reliability. I hear it blew up recently too, though I didn’t get caught in that. Now, I’m thinking, hang on…. I will be a very, very, very sad boy if my email data goes down the drain. Like, properly sad. Like The Little Prince for his rose, that caliber of sadness….. VERY sad! Can I trust this thingy out there somewhere in the cloud???

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