Comments on: What We Have Here Google is a Failure to Communicate

By: Adrian near Seattle

Adrian near Seattle — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:25:47 +0000

YEP!

Great comments and article–not bitter and negative, but simply saying what is…

Google, are you listening?

Love the goog and use it extensively, and I find it unfathomable how uneven the services are.

The worst/saddest is GrandCentral, for the reasons given,
but also because don’t seem to be trying at all.

Their last blog entry (as of today) is as follows:

Feature Requests
April 22nd, 2008

Everybody…although you haven’t heard as much from us in the past few months as you did before, we are working hard every day on the next great version of GrandCentral and a ton of cool new features. We can’t talk much about them until we launch, so apologize for the lack of updates on the blog. That said, we do want to stay in touch with you all and want you to know we are listening to your feedback and really shaping the next version around your requests. Keep them coming! -This post was written by Craig

I wrote a comment to this entry back in April. It got deleted, as apparently all feedback has…

Hello, Google?

By: Neil

Neil — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:41:24 +0000

After investing a fair bit of time in learning my way around the new Google Sites, I took the time to read the Terms of Service – only to discover that by posting anything on a Google Site, you grant Google a perpetual, irrevocable right to use that content anywhere in any context, including with ads.

No thanks!!!

By: Blake

Blake — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:05:30 +0000

I agree with your thoughts on their services. I have a bunch more thoughts though, specifically about Gmail, at http://blog.geekblake.22web.net/2008/07/some-new-features-gmail-could-use/.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:51:04 +0000

Google is free… so? They’ve put their products out there and they want people to use them. Neither the article or comments are angry or spiteful, it’s all been very positive criticism – these sorts of observations are absolute gold, they’re giving unbiased, user-driven feeback.

When you’re too close to something it gets incredibly difficult to see where the real problems lie. Communication from the users of these services should be seized upon by the Google developers so that they can best direct resources that help them to improve.

By: Gmail addict

Gmail addict — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:11:41 +0000

Great post. My biggest peeve is again the contacts issue. I would LOVE (hear me Google) LOVE to sync my Blackberry contact database with my google contacts list. A simple app, ala gcalsync, would be all that is needed and I could then use my google address book as my cloudweb backup to my mobile device and then wirelessly resync my contacts after buying a new device, or if it crashes, or takes a lap around the toilet, you get the idea.

By: bloobble

bloobble — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:29:30 +0000

Interesting article about Google products. I'd be interested to know what you think about Google empire in general. I posted an article yesterday Google Union or the virtual communism of the digital age?

By: Rhea - Google Fan

Rhea - Google Fan — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:29:07 +0000

Great post. It’s nice to know what other users think. I usually don’t have much to say against Google as of this time, since I just started using most of its product last year. Really great. Thanks.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:17:13 +0000

Yes, what is happening what GrandCentral? It is in limbo. Can’t export or import addresses. Just see a message that they are busy working. This has been the case for at least a month. If they could sync the Gmail contacts with grandcentral, etc.

By: Judi Sohn

Judi Sohn — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:56:35 +0000

True, most of Google’s service are free. But there are folks who are paying for the Premium version of Google Apps and they’re not avoiding a single problem the rest of us are facing.

By: Hamsini

Hamsini — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:41:28 +0000

Couple of points here:

The big picture is that Google is free.

AdWords does offer time of visit and referral sites data. IP address is not shared because of user privacy.

Integrating all their services is a work-in-progress and not an easy task as writing a comment here about them.

By: KilgoreTrout

KilgoreTrout — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:47:26 +0000

i agree – google started with a bang but it’s turning into a hotchpotch of services that start out well and then just whimper on. With the amazing resources they must have, it’s a snails pace of improvement both in terms of integration and features. Many of the leaps they have made over the last year or two are via companies they have purchased rather than in house developments.

I guess the end user software they provide is a loss leader to their real business but the way they treat that software is starting to look a little like how Computer Associates do things in the non internet world.

By: gmarie808

gmarie808 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:15:33 +0000

It seems we all have missed the big picture here…GOOGLE IS FREE.

By: Libran Lover

Libran Lover — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:17:58 +0000

Great post. Google should realize that each day they spend in not giving proper integration to their users, they get dangerously close to losing out to another competitor who does these things well. Not only because the competitors are hard at work building new and improved services, but also because the users are dissatisfied.

Google does not have the luxury of assuming that their vast user-base won’t move to another service or that they can acquire any new upstart who makes a splash on the scene.

For example, Google should have integrated all their services long before MobileMe from Apple came into the picture!

By: george

george — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:44:19 +0000

the thing that annoys me the most is that mobile phone integration is really quite poor. No SyncML to sync the calendar, no gmail contacts as my phonebook. Oh, one more thing: why can’t I add a contact person’s birthday, creating a recurring reminder when the day comes?

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 06:44:29 +0000

Thank you for this great post.

I am totally with you here. What I can not understand is why Google, with its vast resources is not able to fix some of the most glaring problems. ie, lack of functionalities in its core services.
Look at Zoho for instances and see what the company is able to deliver in so little time, and with relatively few resources.

I was looking at Glabs with, at first a great deal of excitement…. Interesting developments but…, when looking at the big picture, it is a joke.

By: Son Nguyen

Son Nguyen — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 05:05:19 +0000

And the fact that Google does not show details about clicks (IP address, time, referring pages) in AdWords is another missing feature that they might intentionally try to hide.