New York Times article about Google fucking everything up.

This morning, Monday, December 14, 2020, I was unable to see all my stuff which is in a private google blog. I can't exist without my stuff so I was very concerned about it. I kept trying to get in but nothing happened. After more than 30 minutes everything was normal again and I could see my stuff. I could exist again. Google, don't fuck up again FFS.

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Google’s apps crash in a worldwide outage.

December 14, 2020

By Adam Satariano

Internet users worldwide received a jarring reminder on Monday about just how reliant they were on Google, when the Silicon Valley giant suffered a major outage for about an hour, sending many of its most popular services offline.

At a time when more people than ever are working from home because of the pandemic, Google services including Calendar, Gmail, Hangouts, Maps, Meet and YouTube all crashed, halting productivity and sending angry users to Twitter to vent about the loss of services. Students struggled to sign into virtual classrooms.

As users scrambled to figure out what was going on, Google disclosed the outages on a status dashboard that shares information about its various services. Downdetector, a website for tracking internet outages, also showed that Google was offline. Google’s search engine continued to work for some people.

But about an hour after the outages began, the services started working again.

Google initially provided limited information about what occurred, and it was not immediately clear how many users were affected by the outage. Several of Google’s products have more than a billion global users, including Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Play, Search and YouTube.

Later, the company attributed the problem to an “authentication system outage” that lasted for approximately 45 minutes ending at 7:32 a.m. Eastern time.

“All services are now restored,” Google said in a statement. “We apologize to everyone affected, and we will conduct a thorough follow up review to ensure this problem cannot recur in the future.”

Product outages were once fairly common for growing internet companies. But as Google, Facebook and others have become larger, building complex networks of interconnected data centers around the world, the incidents have become less common. Google has privately financed undersea cables to move data between continents and improve performance in the event problems occur in a certain location.

The reliability of the systems have become increasingly important as people and businesses depend on the services, whether to search for information online, find directions, send email or get access to private documents stored on Google’s servers. Some users reported their appliances not working because they were linked to Google’s line of home products.

During lockdowns, schools have leaned on Google services to teach students forced to stay home. “At least we have an excuse for not doing our homework,” one person wrote on Twitter.

The incident is likely to provide fodder for those who say the biggest technology companies have grown too powerful and deserve more oversight. In the United States, Google and Facebook are facing antitrust lawsuits. In the European Union, new regulations will be introduced on Tuesday to limit the industry’s power.

William Dixon, a cybersecurity expert at the World Economic Forum, said the outage highlighted the fragility of the world’s digital networks.

“What you have is an increasingly smaller number of technology providers that are systemically important,” said Mr. Dixon, who used to work on cybersecurity issues for the British government. “If there is one issue, then the cascades of that are quite significant.”

200,000 dead human apes who didn't wear a face mask because Trump said that was OK.

I could not live without Google. I use it for thousands of things. Everything is free. There are zero ads. Everything you always wanted to know about Google: Click the link.

Google is 22 years old today.

 

Things are different on the new Google Blogger. The more I figure out how to do things, the more I like it. It's much better than the old Blogger.

A better Blogger experience on the web

May 20, 2020

Since 1999, millions of people have expressed themselves on Blogger. From detailed posts about almost every apple variety you could ever imagine to a blog dedicated to the art of blogging itself, the ability to easily share, publish and express oneself on the web is at the core of Blogger’s mission. As the web constantly evolves, we want to ensure anyone using Blogger has an easy and intuitive experience publishing their content to the web.

That’s why we’ve been slowly introducing an improved web experience for Blogger. Give the fresh interface a spin by clicking “Try the New Blogger” in the left-hand navigation pane.

This is the weather where I live in northwestern Illinois. This is a real heaven. I put this stuff here because I like using Google's new blogger. Who cares about politics and the pandemic? For me everything is perfect these days.

Mon 9/21

Tue 9/22

Wed 9/23

Thu 9/24

Fri 9/25

Sat 9/26

Sun 9/27

Mon 9/28

Tue 9/29

Wed 9/30

-- | 51°F

Mostly Clear

79° | 52°F

Mostly Sunny

79° | 54°F

Partly Cloudy

78° | 56°F

Partly Cloudy

80° | 59°F

Sunny

82° | 54°F

Mostly Sunny

74° | 53°F

Partly Cloudy

Google's Blogger has been changed recently. After much complaining I learned how to love the thing. It's much better than the old Blogger.

The latest tips and news from the Blogger team

A better Blogger experience on the web

May 20, 2020

Since 1999, millions of people have expressed themselves on Blogger. From detailed posts about almost every apple variety you could ever imagine to a blog dedicated to the art of blogging itself, the ability to easily share, publish and express oneself on the web is at the core of Blogger’s mission. As the web constantly evolves, we want to ensure anyone using Blogger has an easy and intuitive experience publishing their content to the web.

That’s why we’ve been slowly introducing an improved web experience for Blogger. Give the fresh interface a spin by clicking “Try the New Blogger” in the left-hand navigation pane.

In addition to a fresh feel, Blogger is now responsive on the web, making it easier to use on mobile devices. By investing in an improved web platform, it allows the potential for new features in the future.

Learn more about the page-specific updates we’ve released to make your Blogger experience even better:

Stats
The redesigned Stats page helps you focus on the most important data from your blog by highlighting your most recent post.

Comments
A fresh Comments page helps you connect with readers more easily by surfacing areas that need your attention, like comment moderation.

Posts
We’ve improved support for Search Operators on the Posts page to help you filter your Blogger posts and page search results more easily.

Editor
The newly enhanced Editor page introduces table support, enables better transliteration, and includes an improved image/video upload experience.

Reading List
Even if you don’t create from your phone, it’s now easier than ever to read blogs from other creators while you’re on the go.

Settings
We’ve streamlined the Settings page to help you manage all your controls from one place.

We’ll be moving everyone to the new interface over the coming months. Starting in late June, many Blogger creators will see the new interface become their default, though they can revert to the old interface by clicking “Revert to legacy Blogger” in the left-hand navigation. By late July, creators will no longer be able to revert to the legacy Blogger interface.

We recommend getting ahead of the transition by opting into the experience today. Be sure to let us know what you think about the new design by tapping the Help icon in the top navigation bar. We can’t wait to see how Blogger creators use the latest updates to share their voice with the world.

Posted by Fontaine on behalf of the Blogger team