Google - huge, fat and arrogant

Well, the Nazis at Google are still at it.

My friend has a small business in the art field. Her company name is "last name+art" - such as, for example, "spencerart", and not unreasonably she relies in large measure on email.

So it was some time ago that she tried to register her name as username for a Gmail address - for example, spencerart@gmail.com:

- it was "unavailable".

- it is not being used by anyone.

- it simply is not available to her because someone at Google has some sort of nefarious interest in it.

She has asked several times for an explanation, from the people who run gmail, and she has faxed a letter to Larry Page, one of Google's founders, asking him why his company is withholding her name and what it intends to use it for. She was not expecting an answer from him and so it did not exactly bother her that she got none.

But "the gmail team" are something else.

After receiving no response several times, she wrote:

"I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU PEOPLE INTEND TO DO WITH
MY BUSINESS NAME
--- The Google Team
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Thank you for your response.
>
> While we appreciate your interest in the
> username "******art," we're
> unable to reveal further information for
> privacy reasons.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> The Google Team"

as far as I can see this arbitrary, high-handed and snot-nosed approach by the Google Nazis requires some explanation, which is not forthcoming as the gmail team appears to have the same arrogant attitude as Louis XIV - his motto may have been l'etat, c'est moi, but theirs clearly is "l'internet, c'est google".

Today, I tried the following:

I entered first and last name, Flora Huntingdon, with the username huntingdonart@gmail.com:

"Get started with Gmail
First name: flora
Last name: huntingdon
Desired Login Name: huntingdonart
Examples: JSmith, John.Smith



huntingdonart is available @gmail.com"

So now tell me why "huntingdonart" should be available, but hers, a legitimate business name, is not.

Do not hold your breath while awaiting an answer. After all, Google is so enormous a business that it can - and does - get away with whatever it perceives as being in its interest - and you, paeon, be damned, even if your name belongs legally to you.


c2009 bluemlein.blogspot.com