Had a little problem today with my wireless network, thought it was a problem with AdSense, and wound up learning some interesting things from my AdSense rep. Turns out that at some point in the near future, Google will be forcing all AdSense accounts to migrate to a Google Account login, and it is warning publishers now so they have time to plan. For the most part, the transition should be easy for most AdSense users, except me.
See, my AdSense login email address is the same as my Google Account login, because I got it before there ever was a Google Account (before I got my Gmail invite, remember those?). That’s not a problem either, and if you have both as the same email address you should be able to migrate just fine by visiting https://www.google.com/adsense/migrate-login-1 after you’ve logged into your AdSenseaccount.
However!
If you’ve got an AdWords account, there is a problem. For some reason, AdSense and AdWords cannot be used on the same account, at least at the moment, and that means that if you have an AdWords account linked to your Google Account, you can’t migrate over your AdSense account to that Google Account.
And don’t bother waiting them out. Yes, Google does plan on fixing the problem that doesn’t allow AdSense and AdWords accounts on the same Google Account, but it almost definitely will not be fixed before the forced migration happens. So, one way or another, you will be moving your AdSeense account to a new Google Account if you have AdWords, and you’d better prepare for it now.
I sent my AdSense rep two questions:
I was wondering, is it possible to transfer control of a Google Account to another Google Account? Like, down the road, after I migrate this AdSense account to a new Google Account, and then eventually you guys make it possible to have AdWords and AdSense on the same account, would I be able to transfer control of my AdSense account from that Google Account to my regular one?
Also, I don’t really use my AdWords account, just very occasionally, and for testing purposes. Can I delete my AdWords account (or transfer it to a new Google Account) and then move my AdSense account to my regular Google Account, or is that not possible because the account used to have an AdWords account?
As soon as I have an answer, I’ll let you guys know.
The original email explaining the transition:
Our team would like to inform you of an upcoming change to your AdSense account.
Over the coming months, publishers will be required to update their existing logins to the Google Accounts system. Using Google Accounts will allow you to access your AdSense account along with the rest of your Google products using a single login and password. It will also enable us to offer new features and functionality that were not previously possible.
We’d like to give you an early opportunity to update your account, so we can offer you additional support before we ask all our publishers to make the transition. In order to update your account, first sign in to AdSense as usual, then visit the link at the bottom of this email and follow the simple instructions.
At this time we’re still unable to link AdSense and AdWords accounts, which means that the email address you update to must not have been associated with another Google ads account (AdWords or AdSense) at any point in the past. You’re welcome to use your current AdSense login, as long as it’s not used as an AdWords login.
If you have any trouble transitioning your account, please reply directly to this email.
Quick steps:
* Log into your AdSense account at http://www.google.com/adsense with your existing username/password.
* Visit the migration link: https://www.google.com/adsense/migrate-login-1
* Use an email address that has never been associated with another AdWords or AdSense account.
April 26th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
AdSense, AdWords, Advertising, General |
3 comments
Picasa got an update on Tuesday, improving performance significantly, according to Amit Agarwal. New version 2.7 (from 2.6) is no long a memory hog, integrates better with blogger, and allows you to upload videos to Google Video direct from the interface. It also no longer comes with a screensaver, since the Google Pack has one, presumably lightening the size of the download.
This link is a referral link, from which you can download the Google Pack, which contains Picasa and other software:
April 26th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Products, Picasa, General |
no comments
Google has apparently lost the personalized homepage preferences of hundreds of users, if not more. Ari commented on this at 8:53 this morning, and over 150 people have posted as having the problem on Google Groups since 6:45 am. Users are coming into their accounts and seeing them rolled back several months, losing the last few months of customizations, and any attempt to edit their pages and fix it gets rolled backwards.
Speculating would be a waste of time, but it is possible Google had to roll back to a old backup due to some sort of failure, or that it is related to the rollout of the new search results design. Regardless of what happened, it is a serious problem, and many users are worried that their careful personalizations are shot to hell.
Google Guide Jaime showed up at Groups to offer the first words from Google, about six hours later, two hours ago:
Yikes! So sorry about this everyone… but thanks so much for coming here to report it. We’re now in frantic-chase-down-this-bug mode here at the Googleplex, and I hope to have more info for you soon.
For now, we’re not entirely sure of this, but it’s possible that changing your homepage theme might cause the problem. SO, if you still have your homepage intact, please avoid changing your theme until
further notice.
The big question I know you’ll all want answered is whether you’ll get your homepage back once we sort things out… and the really honest answer is that I hope so, but I just don’t know yet.
Thanks for all your patience and helpful details. I will update this thread as soon as I can.
- Jaime
p.s. no need to report this via the contact form that Fun n Frolic Ltd linked to — we are definitely aware of the problem, and I’ll post to this thread if there’s more info I have or need from all of you.
You hear that? Do not change your homepage theme until the problem has been resolved. In fact, it might be a good idea to not even visit your homepage until you hear its over, as I’ve heard a lot of people say theirs broke while they were using it.
Google Guide Cameron said a 90 minutes ago, after many users said they didn’t change their theme:
Hi guys,
Thanks for letting us know that this problem isn’t related to your theme - it’s really helpful to get this info. Another piece of information that could help us sort this out is your approximate location; if you feel like sharing, that would be great!
- Cameron
I’ll update as soon as there is more info.
UPDATE 2:48 pm - No news, but user beuwolf said at Google Groups:
I will be moving to netvibes as well if they can’t restore my home page.
There is a limit to what people can tolerate in terms of reliability.
So as much as I love Google (and I really do like every web product they produce), this is just inexcusable.
That’s what Google has to worry about with stuff like this. No matter how good your software is, if it crashes, loses data, is unavailable, or just has weird bugs, people will desert you and all your hard work will be for nothing. Google: Don’t make this the day Netvibes or Live.com turns the corner.
UPDATE 5:19 pm: Still no fix, more users reporting this problem. No more talk on Google’s end. Here’s what forum poster silus just said:
I use it as practically a replacement desktop - and use google docs as replacement office. Now I may have to reconsider - can’t afford to have all my docs erased. Maybe time to rethink the whole web-app thing…
Ouch.
UPDATE 2:21 am on Friday: Jaime showed up at 9 pm and said:
Hey everyone,
Quick update. We’re in the process of fixing the problem — we’re making good progress, but please continue to be patient. In the meantime, I’d recommend holding off on re-personalizing your homepage
as we work through this.
Cameron or I will update you when we have more info.
Thanks,
Jaime
Not saying if preferences are lost forever, although perhaps they are not, unless you try to change anything. Thus far, the problem is still affecting users, some twenty hours after it first appeared.
UPDATE 10:50 am: As of 3:15 am, people are reporting their homepages are back to normal. Not everyone has been restored, as some people are still complaining their pages are lost, mostly people outside the U.S.. I’m sure Google will let us know if they can’t restore all of them, although there’s no way to know if they plan on explaining what went wrong.
Users are asking Google to create a backup feature for the page, so they can save their customizations in the event this happens again. Good idea. Think they’ll do it?
April 26th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
General |
one comment
Google has cancelled today’s scheduled maintenance of Google Calendar, after many users were confused and sent emails to the company. According to PC World, Google didn’t clarify what users could expect, leading to much confusion. Google forgot to include the time zone for which its 8 am to 9 pm maintenance period referred to, and probably should have said from the begininning that downtime would be expected to last no more than five to ten minutes during the entire thirteen hour period.
Google tried to do a good thing, let users know ahead of time its plans, and it backfired on them because when users hear downtime, they panic. Its a shame. Google now says it plans to change the way it does maintenance for Google Apps, requiring their engineers to find a way to update the software without causing downtime for users. Unlike previous Google services, some companies and organizations rely on Google Apps for everything, and they won’t stand for downtime, giving Google a new set of priorities.
(via Neowin)
April 26th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Apps, Calendar, Services, General |
no comments
Last December, I posted about a user script for Opera that got several Google services to actually work in the wonderful Opera browser, and its a good time for an update. The script is new as of March 14, fixing Spreadsheets, Calendar, Picasa Web Albums, and Docs. You can get it here.
The real shame is that almost every problem in Google’s services results in Google’s stuff being coded specifically for the mistakes other browsers have. Yes, Google needs its stuff to work more importanly in IE and Firefox, but coding for quirks of those browsers means your stuff is always going to have problems with alternative browsers and future browsers, especially if you have zero fallbacks for standards-compliant browsers.
a description of what the script does
…
warns the user to Mask as IE
…
simply makes the “browser not compatible” notification to go way
…
simply overrides bad browser sniffing
…
many issues related to bad object detection
Apparently, before being acquired by Google, Writely was a model of browser compatibility, and since Google picked it up, not so much. Shame.
As one person puts it in the Opera forums:
In this thread’s case, the severe shortness of a script that fixes all functionality issues with Google docs, Google spreadsheets, Picasa, and Google calendar should be telling. That Google, one of the biggest companies around can’t find the time to test in Opera is shocking; that one man working alone can write an 140 line (including comments) script consisting of a handful of simple fixes should reflect far, far worse on Google than it does on Opera. Especially when you consider that they somehow find the time to work past IE innumerable flaws.
It’s not like Google doesn’t care. According to Opera Watch, some of their teams work hard with Opera to make sure things work. Problem is, then you have Google Page Creator, “which flooded the code with a enormous amount of browser quirks usage, or using Mozilla or IE’s bugs as features”.
(via Download Squad)
April 26th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Web Albums, Spreadsheets, Docs, Calendar, Products, Picasa, Services, General |
2 comments
