// February 28th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Life, Technology
So I have had quite the unpleasant Google experience the past couple of days. While officially announcing that only .02% of Gmail users were affected by a bug this weekend, it would appear that in the lottery of life, my account was one of those minuscule percentage of accounts affected. I would honestly not be overly concerned if my email history was missing, as the bug was reported, because I honestly do not refer to old emails all that often. However somewhere while trying to address this bug, Google determined they would just disable my entire Google account. Well now, as I Google power user, this action DID have quite a profound affect on my life, possibly monetary and possibly for years.
First: I work (worked) at a very large electronics company(750mil/yr revenue) managing our entire web presence and Google Analytics uses what to login to it? A Google Account… MY Google Account for all of our web analytics… strike 1, 2 and 3 all at once. Today was the last day of the month, the day our website analytics report is due, easy enough, a PDF of our Google Analytics sent to the proper person. Delivery – not possible. Today was also my last day as I was laid off. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not?
Second: I had some internal gut feelings that my position might not be stable recently as I found myself searching for work to do. It was not a pleasant experience. I prefer to be busy. Searching and worrying about finding a task to complete on a daily basis became quite nerve racking. Thursday I applied to the first position I have seen listed in a very long time that actually caught my interest. Friday passed, the weekend passed, and today passed, and guess which email is on my resume? My Gmail, which Google stated in the help thread on their forums “if your account is disabled while we fix it, your emails will bounce” OH JOY! I have no idea if they have tried to contact me by email, if they did, I may never know, a bounce off a resume email = not a good impression.
Third: My phone, it’s an Android phone… I love it.. but guess what stopped working/syncing without access to a Google account. Yup my whole phone. Contacts, Market, Gtalk, Google Voice and my voicemail? None of it
I have to wonder if there is even a way to avoid a situation like this. I can’t stand the iPhone mainly because as a developer I do not believe in their policies. The iPhone syncs to a computer, in a VERY long process. No thank you. Sync through the cloud/wirelessly? Well you will introduce the potential of what I experienced this weekend. Keeping my eggs in different baskets is a hassel and would not have solved my situation entirely this weekend. But having everything be inaccessible at once… Google please, please do not let this happen again. If just one of the first 2 cause/effects did have to do with this “bug” you have cost me my salary or a future salary, and if they are both due to this bug, well thats pretty priceless… in a very bad way. As of 11:30pm Monday night, I can finally login, but still cannot actually access my account as I am greeted with an explanation of the issue and saying that my account is undergoing maintenance.
