My apologies to readers who have been unable to access this blog for the past few days. Google has had major problems with servers, filers, or whatever. Blogs were affected to various degrees. Many had only minor problems, if any at all. A few were like mine -- a blank page and no response from Google other than the occasional online claim that everything was just hunky-dory again.
Check this out: Google's plans include online backup services for your hard drive. Yeah. Like you're going to voluntarily entrust your personal computer files to
Google security, government snoops, and every halfwit hacker with internet access.
Google's plans probably played into the company's refusal to acknowledge the severity of the past week's problems, even on their own "support" boards or in written responses to individual emails. But, hey, why admit anything? That strategy worked for the Bush administration. For five years. The laws of gravity stuck around, though. How's that 33% approval looking now, W.?
Interestingly, W.'s approval ratings bear a striking resemblance to Google's three-month stock chart (drop the zero and add a percent sign):
For those who may assume that because Google's services are free, no one has the right to complain about poor communication, check the company's current market value -- and keep in mind that every dime of that value is based upon the continued goodwill of the millions who use Google services.
So, this blog is finally back (at least for the minute; you'll know if you're reading it), but for the next few days I'll be hesitant to make changes or additions. Somehow, all the posts' paragraphing has already been lost. Today I made corrections to the opening page. Corrections to the archives can wait, possibly forever, while I look around for alternative services.
Google doesn't have to communicate with me, or with any of their Blogger users, for that matter. Fine. I'll be selling my handful of Google stocks while I'm still ahead, and just so ya know: If I choose another blog service, I'll keep my (three) readers alerted by posting the new links here -- assuming there's still a here here.
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4 comments:
Well thank goodness. I thought we were going to have to send a posse!
I saw several but they weren't for me.
I've had problems posting photos to my blogs this week. The operation will time out when I try to upload and nothing happens. The last time I emailed Blogger with a concern, I got a form response back a week later. Should I expect the same response this time? Hell, what do I expect? I'm not paying for this.
Yeah, it gets rather irritating when you have only a few minutes and google can't get it right. One things for certain: I won't be adding my hard drive data to their online banks. I think they're getting a little ahead of themselves and don't want to frighten off their customers -- or investors -- so they downplay the extent of the blog problems by refusing to say anything substantial, either online or in response to complaints.
Their service isn't really free; they're one of the richest companies in the world because of their customers' eyes.
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