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Good to hear. I think the whole event was a net good for everyone, based on how many HN commenters responded to the news by offloading as much of their data off

Good to hear. I think the whole event was a net good for everyone, based on how many HN commenters responded to the news by offloading as much of their data off google servers as possible. Glad to see google doing good by undoing their own evil.

pg_is_a_butt 10y ago
google has always been good about not doing evil while undoing their own evil. you're all idiots.
existencebox 10y ago
Anecdotally, this news is what finally pushed me to set up automatic backups, and I can speak for many of peers for whom this was the final motivator as well. I'd be VERY curious to see their internal metrics (data egress volume over time, etc), and my intuition as someone in the business of data analytics/strategy, this sort of reversal likely has some chuckle-worth KPIs behind it.
ocdtrekkie 10y ago
Yeah, I mean, for Google the damage is already done, many of these customers won't trust Google again, plenty of HNers or readers of news sites will consider alternatives as well. At this point they're just stopping the bleeding from their perspective. When you can't get your account reactivated unless your plight ends up going out over Associated Press, the company deserves no kudos for finally fixing it.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
  Outside of the HN bubble, millions and millions of people use Google products and have no reason to treat this as the straw that breaks the camel's back. For one, a lot of businesses are dependent on google services like email because there aren't many alternatives that can match google's price and sprawling integration.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    I am aware of how much smaller of a percentage of users will be affected outside of HN. But given the exponentially wider audience of say, an AP story, we can assume at the very least, multiples of the size of the group of HN people who will switch, will switch after seeing the news story.
    - rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
      Those you say will switch are themselves a very small proportion of the people who will become enraged by the story but in the end change nothing and continue to use Google products.
  - ryandrake 10y ago
    But it would be good for this info to reach a wider audience. It's frustrating--Why can't THESE stories be the ones Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: by grandma and not the ones about chemtrails and Obama hiding illegal aliens in UFOs?
    - whyagaindavid 10y ago
      Do u think people stop checking fb news feeds to get out of filter bubble or promoted news due to this election result (does not matter which side you are from). Or did anyone in the wider population have 1password or use 2FA... People are ‘Security Fatigue’ https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2016/10/security-fatigue-can-cause-computer-users-feel-hopeless-and-act-recklessly https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2016/10/security-fatig...
massysett 10y ago
I've been thinking of switching to Fastmail; email is important and I'm not too happy leaving it with a company that owes me nothing.
- zachlatta 10y ago
  You could also sign up for Google Suite on your personal domain. I used to be on Fastmail and started running into serious deliverability issues. I'd send emails that'd never be received and people would send me emails that'd never show in my inbox. I spent a month trying to get their support to figure out what was wrong, but the response was just "there's nothing wrong" the entire time. Used to love Fastmail, but can't recommend it to anyone that depends on their email.
  - brongondwana 10y ago
    can you tell me the ticket number? I'd love to look into what happened there. Too late for you, but maybe we can make sure things are easier for the next person.
    - zachlatta 10y ago
      Ticket 796081. Also ran into lots of trouble with calendar. Other tickets I had trouble with that weren't resolved were 706457, 611829, 598481, 564293, and 541661.
- yladiz 10y ago
  Migrating to Fastmail is really simple from Gmail as they have an IMAP import tool and you can set all mail to forward and delete from Gmail to your Fastmail account. I set up Fastmail yesterday after seeing the news about the Google account disabling yesterday. It took a couple hours to migrate all of my mail since I have had my Gmail account since 2008.

pg_is_a_butt 10y ago

google has always been good about not doing evil while undoing their own evil. you're all idiots.

existencebox 10y ago

Anecdotally, this news is what finally pushed me to set up automatic backups, and I can speak for many of peers for whom this was the final motivator as well. I'd be VERY curious to see their internal metrics (data egress volume over time, etc), and my intuition as someone in the business of data analytics/strategy, this sort of reversal likely has some chuckle-worth KPIs behind it.

ocdtrekkie 10y ago

Yeah, I mean, for Google the damage is already done, many of these customers won't trust Google again, plenty of HNers or readers of news sites will consider alternatives as well. At this point they're just stopping the bleeding from their perspective. When you can't get your account reactivated unless your plight ends up going out over Associated Press, the company deserves no kudos for finally fixing it.

rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
Outside of the HN bubble, millions and millions of people use Google products and have no reason to treat this as the straw that breaks the camel's back. For one, a lot of businesses are dependent on google services like email because there aren't many alternatives that can match google's price and sprawling integration.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  I am aware of how much smaller of a percentage of users will be affected outside of HN. But given the exponentially wider audience of say, an AP story, we can assume at the very least, multiples of the size of the group of HN people who will switch, will switch after seeing the news story.
  - rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
    Those you say will switch are themselves a very small proportion of the people who will become enraged by the story but in the end change nothing and continue to use Google products.
- ryandrake 10y ago
  But it would be good for this info to reach a wider audience. It's frustrating--Why can't THESE stories be the ones Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: by grandma and not the ones about chemtrails and Obama hiding illegal aliens in UFOs?
  - whyagaindavid 10y ago
    Do u think people stop checking fb news feeds to get out of filter bubble or promoted news due to this election result (does not matter which side you are from). Or did anyone in the wider population have 1password or use 2FA... People are ‘Security Fatigue’ https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2016/10/security-fatigue-can-cause-computer-users-feel-hopeless-and-act-recklessly https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2016/10/security-fatig...

massysett 10y ago

I've been thinking of switching to Fastmail; email is important and I'm not too happy leaving it with a company that owes me nothing.

zachlatta 10y ago
You could also sign up for Google Suite on your personal domain. I used to be on Fastmail and started running into serious deliverability issues. I'd send emails that'd never be received and people would send me emails that'd never show in my inbox. I spent a month trying to get their support to figure out what was wrong, but the response was just "there's nothing wrong" the entire time. Used to love Fastmail, but can't recommend it to anyone that depends on their email.
- brongondwana 10y ago
  can you tell me the ticket number? I'd love to look into what happened there. Too late for you, but maybe we can make sure things are easier for the next person.
  - zachlatta 10y ago
    Ticket 796081. Also ran into lots of trouble with calendar. Other tickets I had trouble with that weren't resolved were 706457, 611829, 598481, 564293, and 541661.
yladiz 10y ago
Migrating to Fastmail is really simple from Gmail as they have an IMAP import tool and you can set all mail to forward and delete from Gmail to your Fastmail account. I set up Fastmail yesterday after seeing the news about the Google account disabling yesterday. It took a couple hours to migrate all of my mail since I have had my Gmail account since 2008.