4 ms·

I have a client who uses google apps for biz. They're a law firm. When docs are gone, productivity is gone. Ouch!

jganetsk 15y ago
I am an engineer for Google Docs. When they say that Docs List is down, they just mean Docs List. It is stated so on the dashboard site. "Affected users will see a 404 when accessing the Google Docs home page. You can access individual documents by clicking on the link in the original sharing email, or if you have saved the URL for that document." All your docs are still accessible.
- ericleeclark 15y ago
  Right, I understand that. But when you have thousands of docs, most of which you haven't shared (works in progress), no one is going to have the link readily available. So it's essentially a complete outage from the average users standpoint. Don't get me wrong, huge fan of Google Apps. Just becomes a big issue for clients when they can't access their data, even if it's just minutes -- as you well know.
  - jganetsk 15y ago
    As has been publicly reported: offline support is coming back. This will mitigate the issue of outages to some extent.
- rachelbythebay 15y ago
  Your docs are accessible, but you can't get the list, huh? Have you ever heard the joke where the pilot is lost in the fog and yells out "where am I?" to someone on the ground, and they yell back "you're in an airplane"? The pilot goes "ah!" and manages to land successfully despite the fog. Later, at the bar, friends ask how he managed to land it given that response. He just said he got an answer which was totally technically correct and yet completely useless. He figured he must have been over the <company> campus and set course for the airfield based on that. Do you think people really care that it's the list which is actually out when the impact is probably the same? You might be technically correct, but it's totally useless, too. The thing is, when I heard that joke the first time many years ago, the <company> given was Microsoft. I think there's a new contender for that spot now.
  - jganetsk 15y ago
    Ways you can get to a doc without the list: - Bookmarks - Recently Visited - E-mail (which are automatically generated on sharing) - It could already be open in a browser tab, either on your computer, or someone else's (and a friendly copy+paste of a URL can fix that) There is clearly a big difference between "totally useless" and this state of affairs. And it's of great value for users to know this. But thanks for your FUD.
    - ericleeclark 15y ago
      Good suggestions, thanks.
  - deleted 15y ago
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edash 15y ago
I'm sure they've saved way more time (and money) using Google Docs than this one hour outage of the document dashboard cost them today...
- tdurden 15y ago
  That doesn't mean much if the service is down when you need it.
  - deleted 15y ago
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- deleted 15y ago
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- ericleeclark 15y ago
  Right. They definitely have saved a lot of money and increased productivity. No doubt about that. But users quickly forget about all of that when they're dead in the water. Even if there are workarounds available like getting to the document directly via a link, you KNOW some users aren't that savvy (unfortunately, but we've all dealt with them).

I am an engineer for Google Docs. When they say that Docs List is down, they just mean Docs List. It is stated so on the dashboard site. "Affected users will see a 404 when accessing the Google Docs home page. You can access individual documents by clicking on the link in the original sharing email, or if you have saved the URL for that document." All your docs are still accessible.

ericleeclark 15y ago
Right, I understand that. But when you have thousands of docs, most of which you haven't shared (works in progress), no one is going to have the link readily available. So it's essentially a complete outage from the average users standpoint. Don't get me wrong, huge fan of Google Apps. Just becomes a big issue for clients when they can't access their data, even if it's just minutes -- as you well know.
- jganetsk 15y ago
  As has been publicly reported: offline support is coming back. This will mitigate the issue of outages to some extent.
rachelbythebay 15y ago
Your docs are accessible, but you can't get the list, huh? Have you ever heard the joke where the pilot is lost in the fog and yells out "where am I?" to someone on the ground, and they yell back "you're in an airplane"? The pilot goes "ah!" and manages to land successfully despite the fog. Later, at the bar, friends ask how he managed to land it given that response. He just said he got an answer which was totally technically correct and yet completely useless. He figured he must have been over the <company> campus and set course for the airfield based on that. Do you think people really care that it's the list which is actually out when the impact is probably the same? You might be technically correct, but it's totally useless, too. The thing is, when I heard that joke the first time many years ago, the <company> given was Microsoft. I think there's a new contender for that spot now.
- jganetsk 15y ago
  Ways you can get to a doc without the list: - Bookmarks - Recently Visited - E-mail (which are automatically generated on sharing) - It could already be open in a browser tab, either on your computer, or someone else's (and a friendly copy+paste of a URL can fix that) There is clearly a big difference between "totally useless" and this state of affairs. And it's of great value for users to know this. But thanks for your FUD.
  - ericleeclark 15y ago
    Good suggestions, thanks.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

edash 15y ago

I'm sure they've saved way more time (and money) using Google Docs than this one hour outage of the document dashboard cost them today...

tdurden 15y ago
That doesn't mean much if the service is down when you need it.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 15y ago
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ericleeclark 15y ago
Right. They definitely have saved a lot of money and increased productivity. No doubt about that. But users quickly forget about all of that when they're dead in the water. Even if there are workarounds available like getting to the document directly via a link, you KNOW some users aren't that savvy (unfortunately, but we've all dealt with them).