***** A few words about Google's future *****

At #Google I/O today, the firm is publicizing an array of new projects. Some of them seem flashy and relatively useless, others seem like they could be very worthwhile. How many of either category will still exist five years from now is of course a crucial question given Google's history.

But Google I/O is merely the gloss, in many respects what has become the so-called "lipstick on the pig". Because Google executives have permitted their race for the golden and in many respects false prize of "Artificial Intelligence" to cloud their vision, and to permit an increasing number of basic services that billions of Google users depend on every day to, in effect, rot away.

The collapse of Google Search, once a global technological wonder, has been profound. Often incorrect or even inane generative AI responses now often supersede links to the very sites from which Google is obtaining the raw material for their AI systems (usually without any form of compensation, while driving down user click-throughs).

A similar decline is obvious in various other core Google services.

Of great continuing concern to me is the very foundation of how virtually all Google users access most Google services -- Google accounts themselves. I continue to be flooded by persons who have problems with their Google accounts through no fault of their own, including lockouts and permanently lost crucial personal data, with Google's automated systems providing them with no resolutions, only horrific frustration. Google's frankly poorly conceived and rushed implementation of passkeys -- and the pushing of users to them who typically do not understand them and have more problems as a result -- is making matters even worse. What good are fancy new services when your Google account needed to use them may lock you out at any time with effectively no genuine ability to appeal?

Some groups of Google users -- such as seniors and other users with special needs who may not be technologically sophisticated -- are especially affected by these sorts of problems and suffer mightily as a result. I don't think Google actually "hates" these users -- I think Google simply does not want to make the minimal efforts required to help them, basically treating them with much the same disdain as you might flick a bug off your shirt.

There is so much that would be relatively simple for Google to do that would vastly improve the user experience for these users and others -- but Google seems to only care about the majority, and if you're in the minority, well, if you swing slowly in the wind locked out of your account, too bad for you. Google's got other fish to fry to keep the profit centers humming.

I could go on, but you get the gist. I don't hate Google. I still have major respect for the firm and especially for Googlers (Google employees) in general. But I am enormously disappointed with the direction executives are now taking the firm, and this seems to be getting worse at an accelerating rate.

And that's very, very sad to see. -L

@lauren I worked with a colleague at Google who's byphrase was "Don't optimize for the unusual case." Every time I hear about someone losing their account permanently and being lost in the labyrinthine halls of the recovery process that assumes a particular type of spherical point-like user, I think about the fact that he still works there and his philosophy is closer to the centroid of Google's philosophy on software than mine.

... anyway, a friend's parent got his Yahoo account compromised a little while ago, and he was able to reclaim it with one phone call. Someone at Yahoo checked the recent access logs, confirmed that it was obvious that someone had radically changed the access pattern of the account immediately after a password change, and just reset the password back. No muss no fuss.

So now I tell people to get a Yahoo account if they can.