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May 2nd, 2007, 10:58 GMT · By Bogdan Popa

Google: Error? We Love Errors!

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The error returned by Docs & Spreadsheets
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Google Docs & Spreadsheets returns some funny error messages that might make its clients think that it's better to find errors than to use a perfect solution. Today, while I was browsing through
Google Groups and reading some topics, I found this interesting picture posted by one of the registered members. As you can see, Docs & Spreadsheets returned an interesting error that sustains: "The bad news is that Google Docs & Spreadsheets has just encountered an error. The good news is that you've helped us find a bug, which we are now looking into. We apologize for any inconvenience this has cause you. Sorry, and thanks for your help! The Google Docs & Spreadsheets Team."

As you might know, Google Docs & Spreadsheets is often regarded as the Microsoft Office rival that provides almost the same functions as the old-fashioned suite but in online mode. However, this kind of errors are quite harmful for the Google product's image but who knows, maybe it is a part of the search giant's strategy to attract more users.

However, the error is something like "Error? We love errors! Keep sending them!" I admit the errors can help the developers fix some important issues of a certain service, but somehow, it might also cause annoying problems for the users. Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a popular service that allows users to create, share and edit documents straight from an online interface. What if the service returns the error right when the user prepares to close a huge document with a lot of information and loses all the data? Unpleasant… but what the heck? You helped Google discover an important error that might lead to an improved functionality. So, next time you lose your data and you get a funny Google error don't be mad. Smile!

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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: perfect_Stranger on 25 May 2007, 09:54 UTC reply to this comment

Yes, it's true, some of Google error messages might drive you crazy -- if you loose the results of hours of work you are not in the mood of getting some snide remarks.
But these error messages seem to be more a part of the whole UI philosophy of Google -- being googly.
If the message was something more serious, what would that change? Would you be less angry if you were getting a 404 error message or a clean and simply "Unable to perform this operation." after you lost all of your work?
But on the other hand, I really appreciate applications being able to catch their errors and sending an error report (as well as a message to the user) instead of simply crashing as we can often discover using the most popular Office products ;-)


Comment #2 by: Google love on 28 Jun 2009, 11:17 UTC reply to this comment

Going incognito doesn't affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software. Be wary of:
Websites that collect or share information about you
Internet service providers or employers that track the pages you visit
Malicious software that tracks your keystrokes in exchange for free smileys
Surveillance by secret agents
People standing behind you

that was the last line in chrome's incognito's new tab page
what did you make of the last line?
I lmao-ed!


Comment #3 by: duhh on 05 Dec 2009, 17:54 UTC reply to this comment

one error was --

Error 107 -- UR too large

they meant URL, but LOL :)

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