Worst Web Glitches Of 2008 (So Far)

Expectations Are Rising, And Companies Often Find Trouble Making Promises They Can't Meet

(CNET)  We have been reminded several times lately that Web 2.0 is in no way a synonym for "reliable." Major services have crashed. Big product launches have fizzled. Users have raised their collective fists in the air. What's going on? Is the Web crumbling? Well, no, it's not. But users' expectations are rising, and Web companies often get themselves into trouble by promising far more than they can deliver.

Here's the timeline of offline:


Amazon S3 (Also: Google App Engine)

When: February 15 (Amazon); June 17 (Google)

What happened: These massive infrastructure services, Amazon's S3 especially, underpin many Web 2.0 companies. When they go down, big sites go down. When the sites go down, they lose money.

Corporate coping behavior: Amazon CTO Werner Vogels banished to the lecture circuit to explain why S3 is still more reliable than any servers you could run yourself.

The damage: Companies forced to re-consider their reliance on "cloud computing."


Twitter

When: April, May, June. July too? Who cares?

What happened: Twitter began to get unreliable. It's up, then it's down. Repeat.

Corporate coping behavior: During the bad spells, Twitter turns off key features of the service -- like access from Twitter helper apps, or the "replies" tab on the site -- to decrease the load. Twitter also buys the search engine Summize, which adds a new level of utility to the service.

The damage: Twitter was becoming part of the social fabric of the technology community. When it began to get flakey, marquee users abandoned the service and fled to rivals like Friendfeed. The problems appear to have been resolved, but the damage may never be repaired.


Firefox

When: June 17

What happened: Mozilla announced the release data of the Firefox 3.0 and its goal to get a million downloads on that day. When the day comes, the download doesn't work. The downloads start up later, and Mozilla goes on not just to meet its download goal but utterly crush it.

Corporate coping behavior: Mozilla changes "Download Day" to "The 24-hour Period that Starts When We Say it Does."

The damage: Temporary embarrassment, which is overshadowed by insane success.

Amazon

When: June 17

What happened: Amazon went offline for a big part of the U.S. workday. Millions of users had to go back to work.

Corporate coping behavior: Mad scramble to fix. What did you expect?

The damage: Estimated at $16,000 a minute. But long-term damage to the company is negligible (unlike the S3 outage).


Google Docs

When: July 8

What happened: Online productivity apps went offline, stranding users' files in the cloud.

Corporate coping behavior: Apology. Google has offline support (Google Gears) for an increasing number of its online apps. Which is fine, if you remember to set it up before the next outage.

The damage: Credibility. Online apps are being pitched by companies like Google as credible replacements to traditional apps like Microsoft Office. Outages like this shake users' already tenuous faith in the reliability of services that hold their most important data files.


MobileMe

When: July 10

What happened: Apple launched its 3G iPhone with a new data sync service to replace .Mac. Sadly, it didn't work. For many users, key services like e-mail wouldn't update.

Corporate coping behavior: Jobs berates his staff in public; Apple gives subscribers 30 days of free service.

The damage: Poor uptake of the service, many disgruntled users, negative halo effect on the iPhone.


Cuil

When: July 27

What happened: Google scientist leaves Google, builds competitive search engine. At launch, it sucks. By the time it's working as advertised, nobody's paying attention anymore.

Corporate coping behavior: Company claims millions of users are so anxious to dump Google that they overload the new engine. Begs for time.

The damage: You only get one chance to make a first impression. Cuil's growth will be seriously clipped by its botched launch.


Scrabble

When: July 29

What happened: After finally getting off the stick and suing the much-loved Scrabulous off of Facebook, Hasbro releases its own online Scrabble app on the social platform. It crashes.

Corporate coping behavior: Scrabble owner Hasbro claims that hackers killed the service. No surprise: As Caroline McCarthy reported, "if you just look at the Scrabble application wall, it's pretty clear that there are a few people who are angry enough at Hasbro and EA to want to sabotage the game."

The damage: What's a seven-letter word for "global acrostic withdrawl?"


Gmail (Also: Hotmail)

When: August 12 (Gmail); February 26 (Hotmail)

What happened: OMG, Gmail is down. And unlike with client-based e-mail (Outlook), when your Web mail is offline, you can't even read the old stuff sitting in your inbox.

Corporate coping behavior: Google apologies, knows users will be back.

The damage: In the recent Gmail outage, upset users flocked to Twitter to complain. Miraculously, Twitter stayed up, despite a crushing load of hundreds of tweets a second from disgruntled Gmail users.


Netflix

When: August 14 and March 24.

What happened: Undisclosed troubles fell all 55 Netflix shipping centers. Twice. Users don't get their discs.

Corporate coping behavior: Netflix plans to refund fees to affected users, and reminds them they can watch streaming Netflix on their PC or Roku box. Although the company refuses to use the word "fallback" to describe this benefit.

The damage: Netflix customers have to watch old DVDs, live TV, Tivo, Unbox, Hulu... Wait a minute, do we really need Netflix?

And don't forget...
It's just August. There's plenty of time left in the year for more Web 2.0 disaster.

[gmcnally2]

Biggest Glitch-Borderline ''News'' story tops headlines for 3 days.

[eddom949]

Oh well, it''s unreliable. Publish to the web if you really want to communicate something electronically.

[idnnsg]

"In fact, not only are people extremely different on the internet. They should never... NEVER.. be taken seriously. Never." - donnie10008

A little introspection, donnie? Look in the mirror!

BTW, and FYI: you don''t have to take me seriously if you don''t want to (it''s your loss), but I am EXACTLY the same person in person as I am on the internet.

[mrcrewcut]

oh yea, vista is fine by me. never had any problems myself. I%u2019ve seen apples crash and freeze about as often as my pc, only difference is their users are always surprised and make excuses for the errors... sadly most of us aren%u2019t comfortable with a learning curve so sandbox software that holds your hands and lets you get down to the business of creating the same old is all that%u2019s needed. if you%u2019re so smart, my little apple users, why does all your software cost more and do less? And I''m happy to tell you this to your face, happier actually. Blog this!

[mrcrewcut]

hit happened... and who gives a hoot. McCain, Obama and Hillary. three little Politicians lying to you and me. look, its not a matter of democrat or republican, its a matter of incompetence and corruption, greed, that%u2019s what brings all the companies to their knees. greedy little stockholders letting corporate scum ship our jobs to enemy states. like it? cause that%u2019s life, man, $hit happens. what about the ocean? dead zones, think about it, your corn chips are killing the fish. well, the farmers reliance on fertilizer to bring cheap wilted vegetables to the mega mart near you. only way for the next president to save face and avoid the backlash of environmental and economic collapse is war. so kiss your fat rear ends goodbye. anyway, I%u2019m exactly the same on and off the net. the science is real, grab some lube friends, cause were about to get screwed. just depends on if we get captain Viagra, brother Obama or sweet sister hilldabeast. so we can shout about whose fault it is, or we can get down to the business of saving our country and improving our world. I know my fellow Americans and I%u2019m were a pretty stupid selfish lot. welcome to the end.

[rwsmith29456]

If internet infrastructure doesn''t get upgraded, the worst flops are yet to come.

[deacon20081]

The biggest WEB disaster? The MCSame Brownie points posters who wish to ride on his LEMMING EXPRESS BUS.

[demwatcher]

They missed the Internet glitch about how all Liberals in America were conned into believing that Obama was qualified to be president.

Truly, never a more gullible class of human has ever existed in civilized history.

[donnie10008]

In fact I kinda feel sorry fer the politicians who take blogs seriously.. They''ve been seriously misled.

[donnie10008]

There''s a far side comic strip where there''s this little bald headed guy married to this wife twice his size.. and she''s yelling and screaming at him fer stupid stuff all while he''s home. And he gets in his car, and you see him metamorphasize.. Dr. Jekyle/Mr. Hyde.. Cursing and screaming at everybody on the highway. And thats what the internet is.

[donnie10008]

The biggest internet flop, I''d have to say, is blogs. People on blogs, and the internet for that matter, aren''t the same people you meet on the street at all. And this.. liberal blog force is, what I''d have to say, the flop of the century. In fact, not only are people extremely different on the internet. They should never... NEVER.. be taken seriously. Never..

[ichabod57]

Well, what''s the difference? You''ve got WindowsME, and then you''ve got Vista, also known as the sequel (WindowsME-2)!

[lloydbest1]

Posted by brianbwb at 06:25 PM : Aug 15, 2008

Yeah, and we haven''t forgotten that other Microsoft disaster, WindowsME.

[brianbwb-2009]

You guys left out the best one,

Windows Vista

When: from date of release until present.

What happened: Most many firms refuse to make Vista-compatible versions of software, people who had just bought computers a month or so before the release date found themselves forced to upgrade their graphics cards, and other internals, for the first time in its history, the PC and laptop vendors were offering "upgrades" back to XP.

Corporate coping behavior, MS simply said "Tuff titeyes" and announced plans for another incompatible version, Windows 7, thus ensuring application developers wouldn''t invest to produce Vista versions of the software.

The damage, millions of computers rendered obsolete by inferior OS, lost income from those who had to upgrade hardware less than 6 months after purchase.

[rf35]

Not one of these problems affected me in the least.