What it's like to get locked out of Google indefinitely

[Steve Guttag]

Neither Google nor Dropbox, both used by large corporations, portray a degree of unprofessionalism. In fact, going to someone's no-name business site could bring with it unknown viral threats as you have no idea what safeguards are in place on a private site where as companies like Google and Dropbox have every reason to portray a degree of safety. I'd be willing to wager that I have not lost one single customer due to the occasional referral to a dropbox or google drive download (I give them a link to get the file they are seeking, anyway so it is pretty transparent). I'm comfortable sticking with what I have.

[Leo Enticknap]

The problem with Google Drive for file transfers in particular is that you have to faff about registering with them, then clicking on Captcha pictures before downloading, it won't work with Firefox, it won't work if you try to log in through a VPN (unless you give them your cell number so they can do two factor, which I don't want to do), etc. etc. I had to register with a Google account simply in order to get at a file that someone sent me via this method, but would never inflict that on any of my customers. That's one of the many reasons why I have my own FTP server for transferring large files back and forth.

[Steve Guttag]

Nobody has told me that when I send them a link that they had to register for anything or go through any hoops (google or dropbox). Now you do have to get the proper link for a download. When setting it up you have to specify what link you want to copy.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I guess for sharing information that doesn't involve the U.S. nuclear codes, it's fine to use on-line... ahum... cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive. The problem starts once your business or livelihood starts to depend on those services. While most of those services have pretty stellar uptime, they're also faceless corporations that don't give a damn about you once you become stuck between a rock and a hard place, due to some screwup somewhere.

We try to host stuff ourselves, but suppliers go out of their way to pull your stuff off-premises. We've been hosting a local Atlassian Jira environment for years now for example. We use it for all kinds of purposes, but Jira now has decided to end support for local installs. I don't want to put this stuff into their cloud, firstly because their performance sucks and secondly, because I like having full control of the information saved in this system...

[David Ferguson]

The main thing I don't like about Google and similarly large companies is that there is no way to get in touch if something is broken. You might question how often this occurs, but if something breaks for you, it's a big deal! I've had files not download in Google Drive before, crashing with cryptic error messages, and the only way I managed to resolve it was through a friend who knew someone who worked at Google! I actually have a different issue at the moment (one of my YouTube videos isn't showing up under my channel), and I suspect I'll have to contact this person again to ask them to have a look. I don't know if the situation is any different for business customers (I know YouTube channels that are significantly large enough get a representative at YouTube), but it's just a result of Google's business model. You are not the customer, the advertisers are, and thus "customer support" is for advertisers, not you.

While less applicable for the situation of sharing files with others, there's also the danger that the company shuts down the service, taking your data with them (which is the original post of this thread after all). It may seem unlikely that Google Drive or Dropbox is going anywhere, but I wouldn't be so sure. Remember Yahoo Groups, the largest mailing list service? Or how about Google+ or Apple's MobileMe? They were once large players in their game, now gone.

Having said all this... I still use Google and Dropbox. They're fast and convenient. I can still whine at them though

[Frank Cox]

Google, Dropbox and most other third-party email and file distribution outfits all sell branding services as an extra-cost feature (not included in their free service tiers), so I'm apparently not the only one who thinks a customized addresses or file links look better than @gmail.com addresses and such on things like websites, business cards and email. At least some people must believe it's worth paying for the custom branding.

Do generic links and email addresses lose you customers? Probably not in your case, especially in the rather niche field that you're in. But it still looks less professional than it could be.

When you hire someone to repair your roof and the guy shows up in a rusted-out Chev with a bent ladder strapped on top that doesn't mean he isn't going to do good work; he might even be the best in the field. But it looks better and he might even get more customers if he arrives in a clean, neatly loaded service truck with his name and phone number printed on the side.

As a counter-example, the electrician who does my work here drives an old beat-up truck and shows up to work with, literally, a hacksaw, a pair of pliers and a screwdriver in his pocket. But he's been doing that work for years and years and he's amazingly efficient. He took a few years off doing something else a while ago and during that time when I had electrical work to be done I called someone else in town, a young guy just starting out. The contrast was amazing. This guy showed up with a big white service truck with huge orange letters on the side and carried at least six toolboxes in to do the work. He has tools that I've never seen before. His cell phone rang when he was here and his ring tone was the James Bond theme. I thought that was appropriate. But it takes him a half day to do what the old guy can do in an hour.

[Kenneth Wuepper]

Frank,

The one thing that is not put in the truck or carried in the tool box is EXPERIENCE. That is what your old service technician has.

Using all of the sophisticated tools takes time and skill other than what is needed to simply fix the problem "once it is identified" through experience.

[Steve Guttag]

The reason I'm not worried about Google Drive and Dropbox causing me a service interruption is that I have, perpetually a copy on each device. Sure, the laptop, when it's off isn't updating but the desktops are and it is only current projects that are up there (or of someone needs a quick download of a file larger than a mailbox can handle). And, using both services, they'd BOTH have to go down simultaneously for us to lose service. Our needs are so small for them (again, only current projects), we don't need much space in the cloud.

[Leo Enticknap]

Using all of the sophisticated tools takes time and skill other than what is needed to simply fix the problem "once it is identified" through experience.

Equipment failure problems usually fall into two categories: common failures (either because of a design/manufacture issue, or widespread misuse) that experience will quickly diagnose, and rare ones that require an evidence-based investigation to diagnose. Sophisticated tools can help with the latter, but rarely the former, apart from to confirm a suspicion. For example, if a customer complains that they've cranked the volume up to 10 on their CP750 and can still barely hear anything, I know that it's level drop disease and that they need a new motherboard, because I've dealt with 20 previous cases and that was the upshot of all of them. Sure, I could measure the analog output voltage, but this is such a well known problem that there is really no need (especially if I would have to take a long drive to a site to do so). But if it's an intermittent fault whereby automation cues fired over the management LAN sometimes work but sometimes don't, a laptop and the ability to use Wireshark will help you.

[Mike Blakesley]

I've had music I've "purchased" disappear off of the cloud service. So whenever I "purchase" something I download it, which sometimes requires actually playing it, ripping it with Audacity, and exporting it -- which is a pain, but then I've got a solid copy that I can really know I own.

The main thing I don't like about Google and similarly large companies is that there is no way to get in touch if something is broken.

People are always griping about government regulations. I think a good regulation would be that every company has to be able to be reached by phone, SOMEHOW. It's just kooky that we have these giant faceless companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook controlling our lives but if we have a problem, we can "contact" them but they don't have to respond to us. There ought to be a way to get to talk to a human to at least hear your gripe. They could put a billion dollars into a program like that and never miss it.

[Bobby Henderson]

I can't complain too much about Google from personal experience. When someone tried cyber-squatting on the Google listing for our sign company (trying to establish a Google Business page for it) I didn't have much trouble at all getting in touch with Google personnel (first by email and then phone). I was able to verify our company details and contact info. Google flushed the other crap and I gained control of the page. IIRC, the process was completed pretty much the same business day.

I've bought individual song files from Google Music in the past. I liked that their MP3 song files were 320 kilobits per second constant bit rate files and that it was possible to download the files to a local hard drive. Amazon lets you download individual song files too, but their MP3 files are variable bit rate files that cap at 256 kilobits per second. It's common knowledge, but in case anyone didn't know Google Music is gone and has turned into YouTube Music.

I've never been big on iTunes, although it has been a long time since I've checked their policies. I really disliked them when their AAC files were no better than 128kbs and merely stuck in the cloud. I think they boosted that standard up to 256kbs, but I don't know if they'll let you download individual song files to where they can be used outside of iTunes. Given how Internet bandwidth has improved and storage on portable devices has improved I think it's long overdue for music stores to transition to selling lossless quality music. Apple has its own Apple Lossless codec. Is that related to AAC at all? Then there's the open FLAC lossless codec. I would use that a lot more if it was better supported. It pisses me off that my 2018 Chevy Silverado won't play FLAC files. Neither will my old Samsung Note 5.

Regarding Dropbox, I like it alright for casual cloud use of very frequently used (and frequently modified) files. If I need to email someone a really big graphics file, I'll upload it into the "public" folder of my Dropbox account and simply email them a link. They don't have to do any log-in crap or have a folder share itself into their account. They just click the link and the file downloads to their local hard disc directly. No fuss no muss.

With that being said, I do not trust "the cloud" as a primary place for storing any of my files. I'm pretty old fashioned with my graphics files. I prefer storing them all on local hard drives and having at least two copies of the same file on two different physical drives in two different physical locations (like the office and home). If some jerk burns down our building I'll still have all my files.