iGoogle Users Irate About Portal's Changes 321
bhhenry sends in an InformationWeek report on a recent unannounced change in the iGoogle portal. Quoting: "Google insists that its revised iGoogle personalized home page generates better 'happiness metrics' than the old design, but a vocal group of users isn't happy about the changes." The recent change introduces what Google refers to as "canvas view," which the Official Google Blog claims "... makes iGoogle a more useful homepage and a better platform for developers." Unlike the last major change made to Gmail, there is no option to revert to the old version of iGoogle. iGoogle users are reporting that widgets and themes are broken, Gmail attachments don't work, and valuable screen space is wasted. The Personalizing Google section of Google Groups is full of thousands of complaints about this sudden and unannounced change. Many posters have have stated that they are using the Canadian or UK version of iGoogle or even moving to NetVibes.com to get their preferred layout back. It seems that Google and Yahoo are moving in lockstep in springing forced changes that users hate.
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:3, Insightful)
At least the new Facebook gave a chance to look at it to see if you liked it. Those who wished could express an opinion on it, which may or may not have gotten attention from developers. But the notice and first look kind of thing is nice to have, even if it will eventually be forced on you.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
To me, the new facebook is better, iGoogle's canvas and tab placement is an improvement, and Flickr is still perfectly suited for posting my photos.
Re:google.com/ig (Score:2, Insightful)
1. Convention for tab metaphor is horizontal arrangement, not vertical. The new layout is counterintuitive.
2. Buttons that appear similar to OS UI 'minimize' and 'maximize' controls should do just that -- open and shut the collapsible frames. Now they open up a list of options, one of which is 'minimize'. That's an extra step just to perform a simple function.
3. Tell people before you make a change like that! I assumed it was something I, the user, did wrong. I spent about an hour trying different themes and browsers to try to get back the old layout before bothering one of my poor friends who works at google, who of course had no idea they changed it either.
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
I couldn't agree with you more. I really like the new layout of facebook, the new iGoogle layout, and the new flickr layout. But what am I supposed to do, post in forums for all three sites and talk about why the haters are wrong? Not worth the effort... I'll just keep using these sites and those who can't stand the changes can go elsewhere.
I like the new iGoogle (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't forget Mechanics. (Score:4, Insightful)
"I'll just keep using these sites and those who can't stand the changes can go elsewhere."
Or start using Greasemonkey.
Why Gmail Gadget With No Hide Preview? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
And why shouldn't they? There's precious little "stability" in our lives at the moment, and most of us really don't need to wake up to a portal page that has been capriciously redesigned.
You are extremely naive, son. The notion that Google "did tests and concluded it would improve the user experience" is belied by the fact that part of the user experience means being comfortable that the layout of the page you view most often is going to look the same tomorrow than it did last night.
Terrible (Score:5, Insightful)
They have rendered my homepage almost entirely useless in one fell swoop, to the point that I am actively looking for something new (meanwhile I have to use the UK site: www.google.co.uk)
The worst part? They are doing this with developers in mind more than users. Some Google article I was reading discussed advertising and developer freedom instead of user experience, with a couple of vague mentions of "happier users." I don't want to sound like Marx or anything, but this switch was to make the powerful minority happy instead of the masses. I would be pissed if they snuck ads onto my widgets - I already click on plenty of search and text ads!
The ironic thing is this is one of their only truly "beta" products, and it's one of the few not labeled so.
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
The world is coming to people bitching and moaning whenever any of their precious stability in life is taken away. Between the new Facebook, the new Flickr, and now iGoogle, I've seen so many people complaining for no other reason than that it's different.
If you don't like a newer version of a downloaded program, you stick with the old one. If you don't like a newer version of a webpage, then you (usually) have to go out of your way to change it back. Or just switch services.
When /. changed to the D2 system, I just switched it back. Easy peasy. There's an option to do it in the settings. Changing iGoogle back means either changing your locale or setting a javascript var or using a Greasemonkey script. Though fairly easy, it's still a hack.
I'm all for change, but where possible, why not provide the version of the app before the change? Stick a 'This older version of $x is unsupported. Use at your own risk' if you want.
The Ars [arstechnica.com] story about the switch put across the point that the new canvas view makes it a much more attractive proposition for advertising. Sure, there are many other values, but with the amount of people complaining [google.com] (the main issue being the screen-hogging sidebar) if Google doesn't provide a realistic fix for this 'feature', it's just going to look as if they care more about revenue than customers. True or not, it doesn't make Google look as shiny as before.
change for its own sake is stupid (Score:1, Insightful)
Change happens, its a constant. Change is often good and people are certainly resistant to change but when it comes to computing there needs to be both a desire for change and a reason for change. If users are happy with a product, changing it in a way that makes them unhappy is stupid and unnecessary. Today so many technology companies seem to make decisions in some sort of a vacuum ignoring the feedback of their users and customers. This is completely backward strategy. If people were happy with iGoogle and then I would want to maintain that and support it if I were google, I would at least want to do a wide spread open beta test if I were going to make a sweeping change and I would want to base my changes on what the greater majority of my users want. Corporations are becoming more and more insulated from their customers and more and more indifferent to their wishes just as government is these day (see a connection there?). Its not good for consumers and its not good for business, well unless you have a monopoly that is and customer sentiment is meaningless to you.
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:3, Insightful)
The world is coming to people bitching and moaning whenever any of their precious stability in life is taken away. Between the new Facebook, the new Flickr, and now iGoogle, I've seen so many people complaining for no other reason than that it's different. Call me naive, but I have faith in these companies that they made these changes for a reason, namely that they did tests and concluded it would improve the user experience, and that the bugs will be worked out in time. (And about the FireWire: people were whining when the iMac didn't have a floppy drive too.)
Ditto.
I remember being swamped with invitations to various Facebook groups bemoaning the loss of "Old Facebook", which I remember being a horrible mess. Then again, I log into Facebook only once a week.
As for iGoogle, I don't know what the fuss is all about. Really.
So the tabs have moved to the left. Big fucking deal. I recently did that in Firefox, too; Tree Style Tab is a great extension for surfing on a widescreen.
Oh, yes, the Clock looks a bit less serious, and the Gmail applet has been improved significantly.
Maybe it's because I've used so many different interfaces that I really don't mind small changes like these; maybe if they changed keyboard shortcuts I'd throw a hissy fit, but likely not even then.
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
The world is coming to people bitching and moaning whenever any of their precious stability in life is taken away.
I'd agree for a lot of things (facebook, flickr), but for google the change really blows.
It's funny how that works -- while changes don't affect you personally or you don't mind them, the people who are upset are "bitching" and "moaning" about it. Yet, suddenly, when you are ticked off about a change, it's suddenly "abrupt and unwelcome" and you "don't agree" complaining about it is bitching.
I'm not a conservative, but I respect that part of the conservative ideology. Is this thing being changed for a good reason, or is it being changed for the sake of putting up something new? Even if this change doesn't affect me, if people start changing things for the sake of change, maybe the next one will affect me, or the next.
Almost no one is really bitching and moaning about these changes -- they all have legitimate complaints, and so will you when something you like changes. Don't call them names; put yourself in their shoes.
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
A nit: It turns out you don't know what AJAX is.
He does in the sense that actually matters, as opposed to what the J in AJAX stands for.
Use Greasemonkey (at least on Firefox) (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
As for iGoogle, I don't know what the fuss is all about. Really. So the tabs have moved to the left. Big fucking deal.
Yes, it is a big deal, forcing a change from a 3 column layout to four, with the new column being useless and taking up space that was previously used for other things. It's clearly a downgrade if you like your homepage to work as an at-a-glance page of quick links and info. So now you know.
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:3, Insightful)
In my defense, I have both facebook and flickr pages. The facebook changes were a necessity once it moved from the simple layout to one where content could be added. Prior to those changes, the place was getting so cluttered that it wasn't even worth trying to put a quick message on the wall or e-stalk a person when you needed to get ahold of them.
Google's changes don't come as the result of new features being added that need their own space to grow. Moreover, their previous model of having boxes that can be dragged where desired was quite useful. Even if new features were added, they could easily fit into the box model used previously. It seems like the changes were for change's sake, not for the betterment of the product. As I said in my initial post, though, only time will tell how I feel about this once I've adapted.
Re:Don't forget Mechanics. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:google.com/ig (Score:1, Insightful)
Why do you think you have all this right to complain!?
Re:Don't forget Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Acknowledge, adapt, and move.
People hate even good change. (Score:1, Insightful)
I don't use iGoogle or any portal, so I don't have an opinion as to whether or not the new or the old version is better. One thing I do know is that people hate change. Even if they made iGoogle a million times better, people would be crying and complaining.
This is why companies like Apple make very tiny and largely insignificant changes. Tech people like us complain about all the features that are missing and take way too many years to add. Instead, they just slowly add one tiny feature add at a time. They change enough to stay in the game, but not enough to make anyone upset. They also never make a change that will have people upset. Every change either makes people excited or at worst, people are indifferent towards it.
People hate change, even good change. To make the world a better place, people are going to have to suffer a lot of bad medicine. We have to force huge sweeping beneficial changes, and people are just going to have to get used to it. Otherwise, we'll stick with luddism forever.
New Layout Makes More Sense In Widescreen (Score:1, Insightful)