Well, I'm starting to wonder about Google. Not that they're distrustable with respect to all the sensitive information they hold, like they might use it for nefarious purposes. I'm starting to wonder about their programming practices.

I've been coming across bugs and unresolved issues lately. While I realize that these aren't as big of a problem as world hunger, race-relations, etc, they are little things that add up.

1. When trying to update the description up near the top that talks about the 70s PSA and the Wagon Wheel, blogger straight up fails, and shows me this error page. The Google Help group I'm invited to visit is vaguely reminiscent of other methods of shunting tech support off into a no-man's land. I don't expect somebody to come visit me, but a real place to report a bug would be nice. I have a feeling this help group is not one of those.

2. Firefox 2.0 just updated itself to 2.0.0.18, and now Gmail doesn't load, except when using https, and my Google bookmarks don't load. I tried using Firefox 3, but the Google bookmarks just silently fail there as well.

3. Google's own browser (a beta, naturally) doesn't even support Google bookmarks in any integrated way. I just need to browse to them on my portal page.

4. And for cryin' out loud, I've been requesting this for years. I can't be the only Gmail user who wants this, and Google has got to know that users would want it. PLEASE ADD A PREF TO HAVE THE AUTOSIG AT THE TOP OF THE MESSAGE INSTEAD OF AT THE BOTTOM LIKE SO MUCH ASCII DETRITUS. Whenever I respond to somebody's message, I have to scroll down to the bottom and retrieve it, and cut/paste it to the top where it belongs. Otherwise a long thread between me and another Gmail user ends up having TEN of these autosigs all just kind of hanging out at the bottom.

For example:

2008/11/10 Joel wrote:

- Hide quoted text -

Yep, I just got it today. I sure do wish I could update the text on the most visible part of my blog.
Grrr,
Joel

2008/11/4 Chuck wrote:

Oh, I hear you. Did you get the bX-rvly7y error message yet? That's the pits.
Chuck


2008/10/30 Joel wrote:

Yeah, I'm pretty good. Except that my Google bookmarks aren't working so well in Firefox or Chrome, and I'm upset about racism, sexism, homophobia, poverty, prison conditions, and the complicity of the media in these issues not getting a fair conversation. Having my Google bookmarks not working slows me down from being as effective as I'd like to be.
Joel

2008/10/27 Chuck wrote:
Hey Joel -
Super. U?


--- On Mon, 10/27/08, Joel wrote:

> From: Joel
> Subject: Hi
>
>Hi Chuck, how you doin?
>
>--
>pax hominibus,
>agape to all,
>joel
>
> http://revjd.blogspot.com/

>
> "The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which
> have been hidden by
> the answers."
> -James Baldwin

>--
>Hugs and kisses,
>Chuck
>
>"When I do pushups, I'm not pushing myself up. I'm pushing the earth down."
>
>
>--
>pax hominibus,
>agape to all,
>joel
>
> http://revjd.blogspot.com/

>
> "The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which
> have been hidden by
> the answers."
> -James Baldwin

>--
>Hugs and kisses,
>Chuck
>
>"When I do pushups, I'm not pushing myself up. I'm pushing the earth down."
>
>
>--
>pax hominibus,
>agape to all,
>joel
>
> http://revjd.blogspot.com/

>
> "The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which
> have been hidden by
> the answers."
> -James Baldwin

>--
>Hugs and kisses,
>Chuck
>
>"When I do pushups, I'm not pushing myself up. I'm pushing the earth down."
>
>

I do realize that in the scope of problems in the world, this is relatively small, but being among many users who have begun to really like and trust Google and use their software tools every day, I am hoping that they will turn out fully-fledged tools, and work to get things from 90% done to 99% done. And I know there are diminishing returns, but those returns are the difference between abandonware and stuff that is adopted. So I ask again, is Google nearing (or getting to) the point where they're big enough that they don't care when their products are starting to perform poorly?

pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: anti-oppression, C-Nor, google, indifferent corporations, technology