Does Google Need a Fail Whale of Its Own?
Thought: Is there any way it could be in Google’s best interest to intentionally "go down" periodically on a more regular basis? I was just reading through some celebrities iGoogle pages in the iGoogle Showcase, specifically Dave Matthews’, and saw he has the gadget "Go Comics." His tagline to support the choice: "What we do while Twitter is down."
This got me thinking about what that implies — Twitter goes down (and fairly regularly, too). And although it’s annoying when you get the Fail Whale, for the most part it’s not a big deal because it happens so regularly; you’re used to it. I was thinking about what it would be like if Google users had problems as often as Twitter. When Google had it’s fairly wide spread morning outage on May 14 (EDT), I retweeted this from @danielflorien: "Google services go down; world GDP collapses; apocalypse ensues. Seriously, feels like when G down, the world stops." Obvoiusly, the number served and primary functions of Google and Twitter are very different, but it’s intereting how Twitter has turned error into a cute joke you chuckle about and click away from without much of a passing thought. Twitter’s back end better not get too good, or once they stop having regular problems, people will freak out when there is one. Which option’s better?
Additional reading that I found interesting: The Fail Whale Fan Club.
