Rob, So you're telling me that Google's response to many, many months of neglect, Developer's abandoning your platform, talking trash about iGoogle, and the list goes on...
Google's response to its treatment of developers is a 2 line comment from 1.5 months ago on the bug? Are you insane? I'm sorry. If I were your boss, __You'd be fired__. well. ok. maybe not you but someone in your office would be outa there in 2 seconds (and it very likely could be the bosses mis-management or the culture they breed). Here is how iGoogle does job right: The Boss posts a TOP sticky post in the Developer Group stating what the bug was, how it happened, why it happened, an apology for it taking so damn long to fix, a promise to be more responsive to significant issues, steps now taken to ensure this doesn't happen again, and lastly... Probably one of the most important aspects, which should be highlighted 16 ways to Sunday, VERY CLEARLY STATE HOW WE GET OUR GADGETS BACK IN THE DIRECTORY THAT WERE AND ARE STILL LOST. It would be great to have a checker to see if a particular gadget needs to be resubmitted. A bulk resubmit method would be ideal for my situation. The statement that they will not be lost again due to the new measures might help me a bit in actually believing what you are saying. (unlike deprecating the inline gadgets completely in mid February instead of the stated December) I actually have a better idea.... Instead of pushing the lost gadget problem back on the developers.... why don't you %&*$ing own the problem and figure out which gadgets were lost and restore them? You have database backups, no? Again, this falls under the category... Are you insane? If Google don't have database backups, this question applies... If Google does have the old database backups iGoogle is insane for not doing this! who knows how many developers don't even know their gadgets aren't listed any more. MAKE OUR LIVES EASIER, NOT HARDER. Also, This left me scratching my head.... why did you reply to me about this other dude's gadgets? It's so nice of you to check the little guys' gadgets, what about the gadget makers that have hundreds of thousands of users+? It really seems like Google is trying to kill iGoogle through disfunction. Brad On Mar 22, 11:51 pm, Rob Russell <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > JCF, I just clicked through "Add Stuff" and searched for each of the terms > you gave. I see your gadget in the results for all but "quotes, mythology". > It does show up for "mythologist quotes". It does seem to take some time for > complete indexing to happen. For example, I did a test the other day where I > submitted a gadget with a couple unique terms in the title. It showed up > immediately in directory search for one term but it didn't show up with the > second term until I searched again more than a day later. > > iGoogle and the iGoogle gadget directory are being actively maintained and > growing. The issue referred to earlier is tracked > athttp://code.google.com/p/igoogle-legacy/issues/detail?id=628and has been > fixed (as I stated in comment 47 on that thread). There's a lot of noise and > I was continuing to look for symptoms in case something was missed so I can > understand if this wasn't clear. > > As for making directories outside of Google, I don't see any reason not to. > The developer guide for iGoogle encourages you to promote your gadgets > outside the iGoogle directory, this is the reason we provide the generator > for the "add to iGoogle" button. > > Rob Russell > Google Developer RelationsOn Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 6:30 PM, javalizard > <[email protected]> wrote: > > For all the money Google makes, you'd think they'd be able to fix such > > a significant bug. Then again, IE is still not standards compliant: > > to each either own. > > > Well, I actually own a gadget directory: http://googlewidgets.net/ > > there is alsohttp://googlemodules.com/but the problem is no one > > knows about them, or at least not many. If all the developers protest > > and put links to these sites at the bottom of their gadget > > descriptions, then maybe the users would actually figure out that > > google is pulling great gadgets. > > > This is my free advice (which i don't suggest you take [never take > > free advice!]): develop for another platform. That platform is > > dependent upon the product needs so I can't really give advice for > > which platform(s) (in no particular order): > > Opera Gadgets > > Firefox plugin > > Thunderbird plugin > > Apple Dashboard Gadget > > Windows Sidebar Gadget > > Yahoo Widget > > netvibes.com > > pageflakes.com > > AOL Gadget (you can actually post your iGoogle gadgets here without > > any significant changes!) > > iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad > > Android > > Blackberry > > Palm > > Facebook > > MySpace, Orkut (or Open Social) > > Wordpress Plugin > > Drupal Module > > > Along these lines... a long while ago inline gadgets were deprecated > > but the old popular inline gadgets were grandfathered in... but they > > were locked so code couldn't be changed. They said to all of us last > > standing inline gadget owners that the gadgets were going to stop > > working in December. They flipped the switch in February... but not > > completely. I'm not sure what all that is about but there are about > > 1% of the users are still using it. So apparently, they couldn't even > > do that right. > > > sigh. oh well. bygones. > > J > > > On Mar 22, 3:59 am, JL <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Javalizard, yes, I agree 100% with your message. > > > Similar situation, asked several times to different forums, not 9 > > > months but more. > > > > It is a shame for a company which made a fortune with search engine > > > that it is unable to fix or just answer to our problems. > > > > Maybe we may help: if they have no knowledge or resources to make a > > > decent directory, I'm sure that there is a lot of developers who can > > > do it. > > > > Or, maybe it is time for us to pack and move to FB? > > > > On 20 mar., 02:09, javalizard <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > This is shocking. I've been watching messages like these pass through > > > > this group for at least 4, maybe 5 months. This all takes me back to > > > > when Google deleted my first set of gadgets about 9 months ago or so. > > > > I had 200+ gadgets in the directory and not a one spam in any way, > > > > only one had a small ad in it. It was only a few at a time. I > > > > noticed the number of my gadgets going down. At first i was very > > > > confused, then it seemed that Google was purposefully deleting them, > > > > and was angry. Now..... I just don't care. It seems that in the > > > > last 9 months or so, even new gadgets being submitted were and are > > > > being deleted. At that point, the iGoogle platform stopping being a > > > > rational business choice for me and this is the advice to all my > > > > clients. > > > > > You might ask, who the hell am I to have any sway. I'm not really any > > > > one. At one point I was the #3 developer of all iGoogle Gadgets. I > > > > was invited to be a Select Google Gadget Ad Developer (my name is > > > > still on that page and i get requests for it sometimes, which is > > > > reasonable). That was... until Google started being a google gadget > > > > ad developer.... THE Google Gadget Ad Developer. That nascent > > > > business model was a flop for all individuals involved. Google then > > > > even tried to hire me to develop gadgets for them at half my going > > > > rate. They just wanted to offer me my place back at half my rate > > > > without any google employee benefits... riiiiight. Google also > > > > asked me to be a beta-prerelease Tester of their Open Social platform > > > > which Myspace uses. It was a two day code fest at the Google offices > > > > (all those stories about their free buffet lunches every day are > > > > true). But really? iGoogle has lost all its luster for me. I'll > > > > still use it but mainly just because i actually use my own gadgets, > > > > they are neat and not listed in the directory. Sorry folks. Your > > > > loss. > > > > > Back to reality. From my experience and what I've seen go through > > > > these boards, the lotto may give better odds than getting your gadget > > > > back in the directory permanently. I still haven't seen them address > > > > the problem other than "it happens, soon we'll fix it." > > > > > Advice has been given to resubmit the gadget. But i haven't heard > > > > anything from Google about where they are with the fix or even if they > > > > are working on it. It's been 9 months. How hard could it be to merge > > > > the data from an older database? How hard is it to put log statements > > > > in various places and start doing some testing. I dunno, like maybe > > > > set up some automated accounts for testing en-mass? It really seems > > > > like Google has abandoned this platform. I don't see any reason to > > > > support a disfunctional portal... one that punishes developers for no > > > > apparent reason, either by fault or design. Either way, it's > > > > apparently still not fixed which is something they have control over > > > > and aren't doing. > > > > > Here is what my analytics say on those lost gadgets... every month > > > > 5-10% of the users delete the gadget (and this is averaged over the > > > > 200+ gadgets). That is what you can expect. > > > > > Anyway. I hope this helps you get your gadget back in.... or helps > > > > you let go of your work on iGoogle. > > > > > javalizard > > > > > On Mar 19, 3:26 pm, JCF Admin <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Hi! I hope that I haven't missed anything obvious, but I can't seem > > to > > > > > find an answer after a search of the FAQs and of this forum so... > > > > > > I submitted a simple quote gadget this past December: > >http://www.jcf.org/new/custom_code/randomquote_gadget/randomquote_gad... > > > > > It went up and (after some rejiggering to get it to display properly > > > > > on IE) worked just fine. Through December and January I was able to > > > > > find the gadget by searching in the iGoogle gadget search. > > > > > > For the past month or so, however, it seems to have disappeared from > > > > > the search function entirely. > > > > > > I can still find the "About this Gadget" page by clicking on the > > > > > button from my iGoogle page. And the "Add this Gadget" buttons seem > > to > > > > > work as well. > > > > > > But no one who searches for "Joseph Campbell" or "Insight and > > > > > Inspiration" or "Quotes, Mythology" can find it. > > > > > > What gives? Have I done something wrong? > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "iGoogle Developer Forum" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]<Google-Gadgets-API%2Bunsubs > > [email protected]> > > . > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Gadgets-API?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "iGoogle Developer Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Gadgets-API?hl=en.
