February 2005 | Archive

I’ve had it with Google

Posted on Feb 27, 2005 by jason.

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After I told Google two days ago that the bot hadn't been on the site that day, they apparently just dropped the whole thing and stopped trying to determine what the problem is or how to fix it.

As of this morning Googlebot 239 is back on the site and back to indexing the same page over and over again.

This is the clearest example of ineptness that I have ever seen, the most well defined example of ignoring the user and the problem in the hopes that they'll go away on their own, and the most tiresome and tedious theft of service that I have ever witnessed.

Google is stealing my bandwidth and refuses to fix the problem — after nine days. It's like trying to teach a wall how to be a car instead of a wall — impossible.

Google has no focus on the user. Google has no sense of customer service. Google has no clue how their own technology works or how to fix it when it breaks. Google simply has no clue.

Googlebot 239 is on the site now and is doing the same thing it's been doing for nine days. How can Google not fix the issue after nine days?

I've suggested this to Google on multiple occasions: why not just shut down that bot until it can be fixed?

This entire situation is beyond preposterous. It's beyond laughable. It's truly pathetic, and that's the best word I can use to describe Google.

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Air Force One

Posted on Feb 25, 2005 by jason.

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The president, Condi, and Dick Cheney are flying on Air Force One. George looks at Condi, chuckles, and says, “You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out the window right now and make somebody very happy.”

Condi shrugs her shoulders and says, “Well, I could throw ten $100 bills out the window and make 10 people very happy.”

Cheney says, “Of course, then I could throw one hundred $10 bills out the window and make a hundred people very happy.”

The pilot rolls his eyes, looks at all of them, and says to his copilot, “Such big shots back there… Hell, I could throw all of them out the window and make 49 million people very happy.”

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No more Google?

Posted on Feb 25, 2005 by jason.

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I'm not going to claim that this entire event is over, but it looks as though Googlebot 239 hasn't visited me since yesterday.

Could Google have finally found and fixed the problem? I'm not sure. They're still asking me about other sites on the server and, apparently, still trying to track down the problem.

I can't say that I'm at all happy about this. I'm so far over my monthly bandwidth limit that I'm surprised I've not heard about it from my provider. Then again, I'm sure they'll let me know when it's time to pay the bill.

Google's apparent lack of ability on this issue is most disconcerting and troublesome. To admit to making recent changes to the bots and to have this significant of a problem would indicate someone didn't do their homework.

To add insult to that injurious activity, the idea that it took me three days of increasingly hostile communication with them just to get someone to respond — and only after I started calling executives' offices — is indicative of a significant fault in their understanding of customer service and the first tenet of their own business model (you know, the one about focusing on the user).

I've always been an advocate of Google. They've always had the best search engine with the most accurate results, they've always seemed like a very cool company, and they've consistently endeared themselves to the public and the press with relative ease.

This experience has certainly shown me that looks are quite deceptive, that façades are just that, a deceptive appearance to give one impression while underneath something entirely different is taking place.

Did I just stumble on the crack in Google's façade or did I happen upon a singular incident? I hope it's the latter.

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Same Google song, different Google day

Posted on Feb 24, 2005 by jason.

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Did you really expect there to be a positive update about this Google fiasco? I didn't.

As of this morning Googlebot 239 is still on the site and still hitting the same page over and over and over again.

This is the ultimate example of ineptness. This situation is now a week old and Google has yet to resolve the problem.

I've given up thinking they know what they're doing and that they care about the damage they do to others through this kind of problem. The fact is Google hasn't a clue what they're doing, has shown a complete disregard for the financial harm they're doing to me by continually chewing up my bandwidth well above and beyond what I pay for each month, and is in fact completely unable to fix a problem they created.

This is truly a pathetic tale to tell. I'm sure the Google stockholders would be quite interested in knowing about this situation. It demonstrates a lack of control from the top down, a lack of technical expertise and a lack of customer service, not to mention a deceptive business practice of claiming the user is their number one priority when in fact they've shown that to be entirely untrue.

I sent another e-mail this morning with more information from the log files. I copied the executive assistant who has been the only one to show any customer service attitude whatsoever. I've given up hoping it will make a difference at this point, but at least I have a document trail that shows they intentionally stole my bandwidth when they've known about the problem for five days and have yet to resolve the issue.

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Bush goes to hell

Posted on Feb 23, 2005 by jason.

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George Bush has a heart attack and dies. Obviously, he goes to hell where the devil is waiting for him.

“I’m not sure what to do,” says the devil. “You’re on my list but I have no room for you. As you definitely have to stay here, I’m going to have to let someone else go. I’ve got three folks here who weren’t quite as bad as you. I’ll let one of them go, but you have to take their place. I’ll even let you decide who leaves.”

George thought that sounded pretty good, so he agreed.

The devil opened the first room. In it were Richard Nixon and a large pool of water. He kept diving in and climbing out, over and over. Such was his fate in hell.

“No!” George said. “I don’t think so. I’m not a good swimmer and don’t think I could do that all day long.”

The devil led him to the next room. In it was Tony Blair with a sledge hammer and a room full of rocks. All he did was swing the hammer, time after time.

“No! I’ve got this problem with my shoulder. I would be in constant agony if all I could do was break rocks all day,” commented George.

The devil opened a third door. In it, George saw Bill Clinton lying on the floor with his arms staked over his head and his legs staked in a spread-eagle pose. Bent over him was Monica Lewinsky doing what she does best.

George Bush looked at this in disbelief for a while and finally said, “Yeah, I can handle this.”

The devil smiled and said, “OK, Monica, you’re free to go.”