Geek to geek: why I gave up iGoogle

As those of you who read this blog know, I really totally despise one of the changes Google made to their customizable homepage, iGoogle; the sidebar. It's the stupidest addition ever made to anything anywhere.

For reasons unexplained and unexplainable, some pin-headed moron at Google decided that it wasn't enough that we could SEE everything on our homepage, this dweeb decided we need to have a constantly displayed LIST of everything on our homepage taking up a sizable percentage of the left hand side of the screen.

Now, I don't know about you, but I read LEFT to RIGHT. That means everytime I start a new line, my eyes dart back to the left, where I see again the list of things on the page including the thing I just finished reading. It's distracting to the point that I actually get nauseous trying to use the "improved" iGoogle.

No stranger to software (having been a beta-tester on the early precursors of Mozilla and Firefox), I dug around and found two solutions; one that let me use the GOOD version of iGoogle, and the other that broke it so I didn't have to look at the fricking sidebar, but didn't display the other tabs of goodies.

And after a couple of days, I realized something: Google would see that I was still using iGoogle, even though I have been complaining bitterly about it. In fact, because of the work-arounds, the most experienced users who are the target demographic for iGoogle will continue using it.

And being a too-big-to-give-a-crap corporation, Google will see that there is no reason to fix the vomitous mess they've made of iGoogle. "Fuck'em," their president and CEO will say. "They're still using it, so it can't be worth the effort."

The only way Google will fix its mistake is if it sees a decline in traffic.

Here's a way to make them listen:

1. do not use iGoogle, period, until Google fixes the sidebar issue. They pay attention to webtraffic.
   
2. As often as it occurs to you, search Google with variants of "how to remove iGoogle sidebar." If that search string becomes the #1 search on Google, it will touch them where they live.

In the meantime, slug through MyYahoo or NetVibes or ProtoPage.

Public Service Announcment: how to un-fuck iGoogle

I found a solution that will make iGoogle usable again, at least until Google finishes fucking up its interface world wide. (or until they fire the asshole who fucked it up and fix it.)

If you have the new version, but you prefer the previous interface, go to the settings page and select English (UK) from the list of languages. Please note that this is just a temporary fix.

- googlesystem.blogspot.com

But according to a Google help group, to make it stick, you have to change the URL you use to access it:

Someone posted earlier that if you change the extension on your
google url from .com to .ie then google thinks you're in Ireland and
they haven't been victimized by the "improvement" yet.
Apparently .uk works as well, maybe others. It works.

So I'm back to using iGoogle, because without the sidebars, it's the best thing out there.

But with side bars? Fucking unreadable.

(Do you think it shows how much I utterly despise the side tabs?)

Google Screws The Pooch.

I get home, and my homepage comes up, and it's all fucked up. Apparently some idiot at Google decided I need to waste the two inches on the left hand side of my iGoogle page.

So Google is no longer my homepage. I'm back to Yahoo. It's still a piece of shit compared to the original Yahoo page I had, but nothing could suck as bad as iGoogle's fucking awful sidebar.

The worst part? Google knew people were going to absolutely loathe it months ago. When they tested it, virtually everyone hated it, and the majority of responses was about how much they hated it, and asking for directions on how to re-set the page to its PROPER setting: with the tabs at the TOP. Where they BELONG.

Google finally figured out how to lose market share; I guess they're emulating John McCain.

Congratulations, Google, for the worst business decision since New Coke.