GOOGLE. WHY ARE YOU SO BROKEN.
I feel like every Google product I use they just get more and more broken.
Tonight I tried to sign SABR up for a Google Books account, to allow online search of our publications and also sales of our ebooks. For several days the Google Books program page has been sending me in a never-ending loop of "Sign In Using your Existing Google Account" and then telling me "An account using that email address already exists! Would you like to create a new account?" When I say YES it brings me back to the "Sign In Using Your Existing Account" screen. I tried clearing out my cache, using other browers, etc. to no avail. Finally I just STARTED A NEW GMAIL ACCOUNT, then went to the Books area to try signing in using it, and finally it let me out of the endless loop and to the Terms of Service. FINALLY. But that was not the end of the fuckups...
Next I tried to upload some books. This is a fairly obscure process that includes filling in some forms and uploading files using a javascript uploader tool. Strangely, what you do is you fill in a book's metadata online. Then it asks you how you would like to upload the book file -- using the uploader or using their online form? First I tried the online form, but they limit the file size to 10MB. Never mind, let's use the uploader. But the uploader opens a new window when you add a file to it... which requires you to fill in all the EXACT SAME INFORMATION you already filled in on Google.com. So you go through and fill it all in again, even though you already did this once. All right, fine. Kind of stupid, but at least it should work, right?
I made a mistake on the first upload, though (entering the wrong ISBN), so I hit the little "trash can" icon in my books dashboard and it said REMOVED. Also "Updated Status." I uploaded it a second time and got everything right. But then, wait... I see BOTH versions of the book are still in the dashboard. I hit the "trash can" again. It tells me "Removed." And also "Updated Status." But if I reload the page, "Removed" tag goes away and it lists as "New" again. I resorted to editing the book I was trying to kill to have Title: Delete Me, and Author "Delete Me". Now it tells me "One of your titles needs attention!" because the fields aren't filled in correctly. NO KIDDING.
Then there's a completely separate upload and control tab for the ebook, where they want an epub file named a special way. OK, fine, I named it all as it should be, hit upload, hit save, and.... nothing happens. No title appears in the ebook dashboard. I went and did it a second time... still nothing. No indication that it didn't just go into the ether.
So before giving up complete for the night, I figured I may as well fill in my financial info. I go to the section of the Google Books account where one fills in one's bank account info and such. I do so. Then there's a tab where it asks for the Tax ID number. Easy enough. I've already provided this same number today to B&N.com and numerous other online retailers who will be paying us in the future. I enter it.
I get this error: "We're sorry. com.google.checkout.generic.FORBIDDEN"
That's it. No other explanation. I hit it a couple more times. Same error. On the page there is a "Help" link though.
I hit that. It tells me, get this, "Help on that topic isn't currently available in your language." !! And tells me to try the tool bar at the bottom which will translate the help page, which is in US English, into any of 42 other world languages. (I am using US English...)
GOOGLE. WHY ARE YOU SO BROKEN.
Unfortunately this has been really typical of my experiences lately with Google docs, Gmail, and other Google products, too. I had to quit using Chrome because it had the worst time of all the browsers I tried with managing multiple Gmail accounts and Google docs. Both Safari and Firefox have been far more functional and stable.
Tonight I tried to sign SABR up for a Google Books account, to allow online search of our publications and also sales of our ebooks. For several days the Google Books program page has been sending me in a never-ending loop of "Sign In Using your Existing Google Account" and then telling me "An account using that email address already exists! Would you like to create a new account?" When I say YES it brings me back to the "Sign In Using Your Existing Account" screen. I tried clearing out my cache, using other browers, etc. to no avail. Finally I just STARTED A NEW GMAIL ACCOUNT, then went to the Books area to try signing in using it, and finally it let me out of the endless loop and to the Terms of Service. FINALLY. But that was not the end of the fuckups...
Next I tried to upload some books. This is a fairly obscure process that includes filling in some forms and uploading files using a javascript uploader tool. Strangely, what you do is you fill in a book's metadata online. Then it asks you how you would like to upload the book file -- using the uploader or using their online form? First I tried the online form, but they limit the file size to 10MB. Never mind, let's use the uploader. But the uploader opens a new window when you add a file to it... which requires you to fill in all the EXACT SAME INFORMATION you already filled in on Google.com. So you go through and fill it all in again, even though you already did this once. All right, fine. Kind of stupid, but at least it should work, right?
I made a mistake on the first upload, though (entering the wrong ISBN), so I hit the little "trash can" icon in my books dashboard and it said REMOVED. Also "Updated Status." I uploaded it a second time and got everything right. But then, wait... I see BOTH versions of the book are still in the dashboard. I hit the "trash can" again. It tells me "Removed." And also "Updated Status." But if I reload the page, "Removed" tag goes away and it lists as "New" again. I resorted to editing the book I was trying to kill to have Title: Delete Me, and Author "Delete Me". Now it tells me "One of your titles needs attention!" because the fields aren't filled in correctly. NO KIDDING.
Then there's a completely separate upload and control tab for the ebook, where they want an epub file named a special way. OK, fine, I named it all as it should be, hit upload, hit save, and.... nothing happens. No title appears in the ebook dashboard. I went and did it a second time... still nothing. No indication that it didn't just go into the ether.
So before giving up complete for the night, I figured I may as well fill in my financial info. I go to the section of the Google Books account where one fills in one's bank account info and such. I do so. Then there's a tab where it asks for the Tax ID number. Easy enough. I've already provided this same number today to B&N.com and numerous other online retailers who will be paying us in the future. I enter it.
I get this error: "We're sorry. com.google.checkout.generic.FORBIDDEN"
That's it. No other explanation. I hit it a couple more times. Same error. On the page there is a "Help" link though.
I hit that. It tells me, get this, "Help on that topic isn't currently available in your language." !! And tells me to try the tool bar at the bottom which will translate the help page, which is in US English, into any of 42 other world languages. (I am using US English...)
GOOGLE. WHY ARE YOU SO BROKEN.
Unfortunately this has been really typical of my experiences lately with Google docs, Gmail, and other Google products, too. I had to quit using Chrome because it had the worst time of all the browsers I tried with managing multiple Gmail accounts and Google docs. Both Safari and Firefox have been far more functional and stable.