Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I had about 10 tabs set up with all the feeds I access regularly in sections... a lot of work to set it all up again.
Has this happened to anyone else?
copying everything over to netvibes.com
Just exported my 6 tabs, just in case. (would hate to have to start over) Hmm, netvibes, will have another look.
Won't be bothering with it again.
Ditto. This is the first time I've been let down by Google, and it doesn't taste nice, especially as I've just started really making the most of their Docs and Spreadsheets. As people have mentioned above with regards to Gmail, can we really trust them now to keep our data safe?
.net magazine recently ran a 'which is best' article about start pages, and they recommended pageflakes.com over netvibes.com and webwag.com (they only reviewed those 3).
Do you guys know any service that offers GMAIL backups?
You can easily back up Gmail to one of your own machines, and then back up that machine in any conventional way.
The outline is this: (1) you can use any POP3 client you like (such as free Outlook Express or Live Mail Desktop) to download the Gmail automatically. At Gmail you enable "POP3 access", and then in Outlook Express you set up a new account for Gmail. Every hour (or whatever you set) when OE is running, it connects to Gmail and gets new messages, also leaving them on Gmail. (2) You need to back up your replies, too. There's no automatic way to specify this. I set up a "filter" at Gmail saying that whenever it got mail "from" me, it should forward the mail to my external email address. For some mysterious reason this works as desired: the OE program downloads all my incoming mail and all my outgoing mail now. (3) On the OE machine, convert all the messages collected from Gmail to .eml files and back them up over the net to a distant data centre.
In normal times, you do all manipulation of mail on Gmail, and what is copied by OE is purely backup. But you can arrange a smooth cutover for when Gmail fails. Receive all mail on a mail server for your private domain and forward it all from there to Gmail (Gmail lets you appear to answer from that same private domain). Set up OE accounts to be able to pick up that mail from your mail server directly, but never do that. If Gmail should fail catastrophically, you merely disable the mail forwarding to Gmail and enable the OE accounts to read it directly in OE (neither step requires Gmail to be working). You have all your past mail on your machine and are able to receive and send new mail, while Gmail is repaired.
ROFLMAO!
If Gmail should fail catastrophically, you merely disable the mail forwarding to Gmail and enable the OE accounts to read it directly in OE (neither step requires Gmail to be working). You have all your past mail on your machine and are able to receive and send new mail, while Gmail is repaired.
Why bother? Now you're doing everything twice.
These things can seem like fun and easy to use but you never know what is happening to your private info regardless of what thier policies say.
All it takes is for a wise guy to run the back-ups at base camp without really knowing what he is doing and your life is in the toilet.
imagine how bad it is for all those poor Outlook Express and Internet Explorer users out there.
You mean me? I have no problems with OE and IE, my problem (and all the other's) is with Google.
This could be what caused the downtime.
The lack of communication from Google here was unforgiveable. It's OK to have [some] downtime if, at the very least, we know that it is temporary and will be reversed. A simple message on the homepage would have done.
I suppose it's Google's fault that you assumed they wouldn't fix their error, and decided to spend a day recreating your interface when they were able to restore your account? Really, when has Google ever let a massive issue go unaddressed for an extensive period of time? If it's happened, it hasn't happened to me.
Look, I'm not saying that it's okay for companies to have catastrophic data failures. But consider the magnitude of Google: the number of users they have using their FREE services, the number of datacenters and servers it takes to provide those services at incredible speeds to those users, and the number of employees it takes to support those datacenters, servers and users.
Now consider how infrequently these services fail... and the fact that very rarely is there a case where the problem isn't rectified in a reasonably short period of time. You don't pay for the services, and yet they just work. Whereas people all around the world pay out the arse for Windows technology (not just the OS- the software running on it as well), only to wait months and months for the "service packs" (read: de-clusterforkification) to get the software to start working as it was originally intended.
For what it's worth, I'd have to say that Google is one of the most impressive companies I've ever seen in terms of keeping operating errors to a minimum, growing their existing services (and increasing the number of available services) at a phenomenal rate of speed, and streamlining/integrating those services for a tight user experience at no cost to those users!
That's not to say that the other services don't have their place in the world: I have to admit that lately, Yahoo has been doing a better job of indexing and prioritizing the most recent content from stuff that's happened in the last few days/weeks.
And MSN's "Live" search is always good for a laugh... so I guess it's got its place in the world too.
I guess my point to you is: if you're getting a service for free, and your business/job depends on the reliability of that service, when your business or job suffers because of your inability to have some contingency plan in the event of that service's failure, it's really nobody's fault but your own.
I suppose it's Google's fault that you assumed they wouldn't fix their error, and decided to spend a day recreating your interface when they were able to restore your account?
Why are you quoting me wrongly? Did I say that I spent a day recreating my interface? Was I wrong to assume that my settings were gone forever?
I guess my point to you is: if you're getting a service for free, and your business/job depends on the reliability of that service, when your business or job suffers because of your inability to have some contingency plan in the event of that service's failure, it's really nobody's fault but your own.
Once again you are totally misrepresenting what I said. My business or job does not depend on Google. If Google disappeared tomorrow I would carry on as before. I don't need Google but I still reserve the right to get pissed off when one of their services fails me, whether or not I pay for it. One thing that will become apparent is that the more stuff Google gets invoved with the more problems they will face and the more flack they will take.
This is the Google forum where we discuss things about Google - good or bad. If you can't bear to hear anyone criticising G then this is not the place for you. Similarly there are other forums more appropriate for rants about M$ and Windows software.
One thing that will become apparent is that the more stuff Google gets invoved with the more problems they will face and the more flack they will take.
Well, I'll agree that the more visible an entity is, the more criticism it's liable to take; that said, I wouldn't agree that there's a direct correlation to how much "flack" gets levied- specifically where the institution is doing a decent and upstanding job of things. There's not a lot of people out there criticizing Habitat for Humanity.
As for them facing more problems, I'd have to disagree there too, giving them the benefit of the doubt solely based on track record. I'd say they've earned it by now.
This is the Google forum where we discuss things about Google - good or bad. If you can't bear to hear anyone criticising G then this is not the place for you. Similarly there are other forums more appropriate for rants about M$ and Windows software.
Now who's misappropriating whose words?
Say it with me:
Tongue-in-Cheek
Now, does anyone have anything else to add about Google resetting their Personalized Homepage?
No? Then I'm closing the thread.
Hmm... hang on, I'm not a moderator.
