April Fools' Undo: Gmail Removes Its 'Mic Drop' Feature
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/02/technology/april-fools-undo-gmail-removes-its-mic-drop-feature.html
Gmail, a pioneer in the grand tradition of elaborate April
Fools' jokes, scrambled to undo its latest one after disgruntled
users complained that they had accidentally sent photos of
mic-dropping Minions, the little yellow creatures from the movie
"Despicable Me," to their business contacts ... Many
unsuspecting Gmail users were simply not in the mood for
Minions. Since the Mic Drop button was placed a little too close
to the Send button, users lamented their misfiring of the
cartoon character when dealing with bosses and co-workers.
"Unfortunately some of my very intelligent friends are senior
engineers in Google," one incensed user named Yihsun Lin wrote
in Gmail's product forum. "I almost picked up the phone and
shout at them because of this stupid creation made me sound so
rude to one important customer when I made a mistake to click
this stupid button." Another user named Connie Mitchell wrote:
"If I wanted juvenile prank crap on my computer I would be on
Facebook wasting time." (Facebook, a high-traffic zone for
Minions and the people who love them, does not appear to have
released a prank this year. But the day is young.)
- - -
Sigh. My initial thought was that this entire set of reports was somehow
a joke, but the anger in my Inbox (whether triggered by people who
actually saw this or only saw the news reports) is extreme. I still do
not really want to believe this was real -- but it would certainly not
be an isolated example of how Google sometimes drops the ball when
considering the impact of changes -- even joke changes -- on busy
external users (mostly non-techie users) with real lives. I don't know
that anyone really lost their jobs over this as has been claimed, but
this joke should have been nipped in the bud before it ever deployed
outside Google. It shouldn't even have been a close call.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently
doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone.
_______________________________________________
pfir mailing list
http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir
