Thursday, May 14, 2009
Google Outages
So we had talked in class about the network that google has, in terms of many epicenter-esque locations of their databases and whatnot. The idea is that if one computer network fails, there is a bunch of backup places that Google has to make sure that the whole system doesn't fail. That plan sounds foolproof, but I guess today something else went wrong. Google isn't being too specific about what EXACTLY went wrong, but this seems to describe it generally. I like the fact that the company actually took to Twitter to apologize to everyone that was inconvenienced. Its amazing that there are plenty of other search engines, yet people don't think to resort elsewhere when such an event occurs.
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Here is their layman's explanation from their blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/this-is-your-pilot-speaking-now-about.html
it's interesting that you say that there are tons of other search engines, which is true, but it seems that entire companies rely on google technology...this quote kind of gets at that. "The Internet dies without Google. Can't get to my bank Web site because it's waiting on 'google-analytics.com" So if our companies, as consumers, are relying on google, then in reality it doesn't matter how many other search engines exist. I think we really need to question our reliance on a single search engine to provide us with the tools needed for our everyday lives. If Google goes down life SHOULD move on, but it doesn't seem as if it does.
ReplyDeleteI love how an article on a respected site such as cnn keeps using the word "outrage" for this problem. It's something I would expect from angry people on sites like twitter, but not from them. I didn't understand why people had been so upset about something so insignificant until it happened to me today. I think it took me a good ten minutes to figure out I should try yahoo. I was pretty pissed.
ReplyDelete"Its amazing that there are plenty of other search engines, yet people don't think to resort elsewhere when such an event occurs." This shows the strong brand recognition and loyalty that Google has ingrained in its users and customers. When Google goes down, it seems as though the world is crashing!
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ReplyDeleteI too would struck by the term "outrage" as describing the temporary problem with google technology. I think it shows the strong dependency people have on it, that they seem to be emotionally affected by it. I also think it is an accurate term for how I have seen it affect some people. But did I read it wrong or is it talking about outages?
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