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Gmail has become unusably slow

gabrielweinberg.com

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Re: Gmail has become unusably slow

#71

Post by ern »

Vivtek wrote: post #30
jkincaid wrote: post #8

The Gmail team is most definitely aware of this and a fix is in the works. At SXSW this year there was a panel with four or five Gmail team members and this came up — they said it's related to the size of your inbox, and that it has a lot of Googlers complaining internally too, since many of them have the oldest/large accounts. Also see http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/14/gmail-slow/ , though it has basically the same i…

Y'know, this article isn't about Gmail performance nearly as much as it is another article about Google's utter disdain for our quaint notions of customer service and transparency. Somebody who goes to a conference might get something like feedback and disseminate it to the masses - but that's it. Google is not interested in hearing about problems, and if they themselves are affected by a problem, well, boy howdy, th…

A few years ago, I was called in and told that my work machine was pulling huge amounts of data from the net. It eventually turned out that the problem was a buggy version of Google Desktop.

After a fairly intensive search, I found the reason in an obscure Google Groups posting[ http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Desktop_Something-Brok... ]. I experienced the bug six months after the issue was discussed there, and that was the only source of information I could find.

I don't know if Google has improved its support recently, but the obscure way in which information on the bug was disseminated certainly made me more wary of using Google products after that.

Re: Gmail has become unusably slow

#72

Post by phreanix »

illumin8 wrote: post #53
donohoe wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't mistake lack of customer service for 'disdain'. For every issue related to Googles free products and services when have you ever really, and I mean really needed a traditional customer service rep? Maybe once? Not at all? I would hate Gmail never to have happened becuase they felt it would require a call center and they were not prepared to do that... And as for 'transparency'... um, they're a private company.…

I'm sorry, but even though I've never needed Google support for Gmail, that doesn't excuse their lack of it. If they want to be taken seriously, or considered at all for real enterprise app replacement with Gmail or Google docs, they need to have a real live phone support, 1-800 number that lusers can call to get someone that will try to help them. Let me give you a terrible example: I sync my Exchange calendar with…

When I tested out Apps Premier I was able to get phone support and was very well assisted by them. While a certain level of support is expected from a 'free' service, I don't think it is viable to offer phone support for it. In much the same way, it is horribly difficult to get phone support for any free email service, yahoo, hotmail, etc.

Re: Gmail has become unusably slow

#73

Post by andreyf »

Vivtek wrote: post #30
jkincaid wrote: post #8

The Gmail team is most definitely aware of this and a fix is in the works. At SXSW this year there was a panel with four or five Gmail team members and this came up — they said it's related to the size of your inbox, and that it has a lot of Googlers complaining internally too, since many of them have the oldest/large accounts. Also see http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/14/gmail-slow/ , though it has basically the same i…

Y'know, this article isn't about Gmail performance nearly as much as it is another article about Google's utter disdain for our quaint notions of customer service and transparency. Somebody who goes to a conference might get something like feedback and disseminate it to the masses - but that's it. Google is not interested in hearing about problems, and if they themselves are affected by a problem, well, boy howdy, th…

Google's utter disdain for our quaint notions of customer service and transparency

Do you really expect GMail to provide personal customer service to its ~176m [1] non-paying users? Run the numbers: if the average user calls in 5 minutes a year (very low estimate), how many hours a day of customer support would it take?

And transparency - are you suggesting they open source their infrastructure so you can hack on BigTable to fix their speed issues?

1. In 2009: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=http:...

Re: Gmail has become unusably slow

#74

Post by knome »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #40
godDLL wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fast and slow is subjective. You might be talking about responsiveness of the UI, or a specific feature like search, and someone else might be used to a faster UI, or a faster search.

Click send and stare at a modal still working... for 30sec. This is not subjective.

A computer is fast when the computer is waiting on you. A computer is slow when you are waiting on the computer.

Re: Gmail has become unusably slow

#75

Post by wmeredith »

Vivtek wrote: post #30
jkincaid wrote: post #8

The Gmail team is most definitely aware of this and a fix is in the works. At SXSW this year there was a panel with four or five Gmail team members and this came up — they said it's related to the size of your inbox, and that it has a lot of Googlers complaining internally too, since many of them have the oldest/large accounts. Also see http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/14/gmail-slow/ , though it has basically the same i…

Y'know, this article isn't about Gmail performance nearly as much as it is another article about Google's utter disdain for our quaint notions of customer service and transparency. Somebody who goes to a conference might get something like feedback and disseminate it to the masses - but that's it. Google is not interested in hearing about problems, and if they themselves are affected by a problem, well, boy howdy, th…

You get what you pay for. End of story.

Re: Gmail has become unusably slow

#76

Post by patio11 »

wmeredith wrote: post #75
Vivtek wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Y'know, this article isn't about Gmail performance nearly as much as it is another article about Google's utter disdain for our quaint notions of customer service and transparency. Somebody who goes to a conference might get something like feedback and disseminate it to the masses - but that's it. Google is not interested in hearing about problems, and if they themselves are affected by a problem, well, boy howdy, th…

You get what you pay for. End of story.

Oh, how I wish your quip was accurate.

Re: Gmail has become unusably slow

#77

Post by strebler »

phreanix wrote: post #69

I also noticed that Google Apps (docs, etc.) really spikes my processor load. Anybody else experiencing this?

Google docs has been doing that for me for a few months, I found that if I close the main docs screen after opening a document (in a new window), it usually fixes the problem.

Re: Gmail has become unusably slow

#78

Post by phreanix »

strebler wrote: post #77
phreanix wrote: post #69

I also noticed that Google Apps (docs, etc.) really spikes my processor load. Anybody else experiencing this?

Google docs has been doing that for me for a few months, I found that if I close the main docs screen after opening a document (in a new window), it usually fixes the problem.

Thanks, I might have discovered that too, but I lost track of which fix worked lol.
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