Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Gmail Separation Anxiety

I like free. Gmail is free. I like Gmail. We’re close. It keeps track of my email when I’m on the road. It does my laundry. Walks my dog, not to mention that it’s also very user-friendly. I’m a nicer person. I’ve become a friendly-user. Gmail has removed the pain, use and abuse of bad usability. I can love again.

Gmail. You complete me.

So what happens when friendly and free becomes an unusable commodity?

Yesterday a huge number of Gmail users were without email for about an hour. Gmail users literally cried on Twitter’s shoulders. Here's what some said, "How could Gmail do this to me? An entire hour? Gmail’s not allowed to do that. I checked my mail, but it wasn’t there. It even caused me to be unproductive." Tear.

So to remedy the monstrosity, Gmail engineers scrambled to get their services up and commented that it was due an upgrade of a feature in Gmail. They even offered an apology in hopes to mend hundreds of hurting users. Double tear.

When my grampa’ told me we’d be dating robots, I thought he was crazy. My how the tables have turned. Don’t believe me? Check out twitter and see all the comments against Gmail. Goes to show how dependent we as a society have become towards technology.

What do you think?