In other Google news...

I got this sign-in screen when I tried to login to my Google account. Unfortunately, after sign-in it was the same ol' iGoogle. I wonder if this has anything to do with the problems going on with Gmail right now.

The world is coming to an end: Gmail is down - UPDATED x3

Heaven help us. Russia is bombing Georgia, the ice caps are melting, France is still a sovereign nation, and Gmail is down. It's not an isolated incident as people on Twitter are reporting the same problem:

Whatever could be the problem? I've never really had any issues with Gmail. Interestingly enough, I can use Gmail over IMAP on my iPhone. Weird.

One clue may be (yes, I'm really reaching here) is this new "Create an account" button I saw this morning:

Most of the time it's just a text link, although occasionally I've seen it as a blue Aqua-esque button. New UI?

What do you think? Is Google rolling out a new UI? Is it a technical glitch? Are they going to give us Push functionality? Has your account been affected? Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: I saw a  Cult of Mac article in my feed reader saying MobileMe's mail is also down.

Oddly, when I clicked the link in my feed reader to go to the actual article, Cult of Mac gave me an error page. Hmmm...strange stuff is afoot. Perhaps my initial hunch that Apple just transitioned all their .Mac stuff to Google's services, masked in a pretty Apple design, is true. ;)

UPDATE 2: TechCrunch is reporting the same thing: Gmail is down systemwide. As a side note, I'd like to point out that I had the "story" up before Arrington did. ;)

UPDATE 3: As of about 4:35, my account is back. Same ol' look and at first glance no new features. Also, no word on the Official Gmail Blog about the outage.

Suck it, Frenchies

"'The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came here for.'" Yeah, that's what the French said with regard to the 400 meter relay. Why the hate, Frenchies? You seem very determined to hate us while we're trying as hard as we can to forget you exist.

As it turns out, Frenchies lost. Or surrendered. It's so hard to tell. Anyhoo, check out the dramatic comeback video by clicking here. Note that you'll need Silverlight installed on your browser (stupid Microsoft, right Paul?) but it's well worth the watch.

How does Steve Jobs get his strength?

A hilarious description, courtesy of Engadget.

"Steve Jobs, presumably speaking from a hyperbaric chamber where he's being nourished with an infusion of liquified developers-souls before his next public appearance, had a few interesting tidbits about the AppStore for the Wall Street Journal this morning."

I noticed something weird about iGoogle

Most of us recognize this screen. Notice the pre-selected widgets faded in the background: YouTube, weather, clock, etc. Why anyone would add a clock widget on their homepage is beyond me as most computers nowadays are able to tell time. But I digress.

When I launched my browser this morning, instead of the standard widgets you see above it was populated with what looked like popular, locally relevant widgets. There was a KSL widget, an LDS.org widget among others. I didn't think much of it, figuring they were going to suggest widgets based on popular sites in my area and logged in.

I should have learned by now that when there's some kind of anomoly with anything Google I should get a screen shot because it's not there anymore. If anyone else notices the same thing, please grab a screen shot and e-mail it to me: theotherdrummer at gmail *dot* com.

I hate this thing

 

I know I'm probably going to offend some people when I say this, so I half-heartedly apologize in advance.

I think this widget could be about the tackiest thing I've ever seen.

Honestly, what makes you think anyone wants to see a baby floating around in your virtual uterus, squiggly umbilical cord and all? I'm happy that you're having a kid. Really. Congratulations. That's wonderful news. I don't want a sneak peek. Thanks though.

So I decided to prove the ridiculousness of the widget by cramming 10 little fetuses in my virtual uterus (I never thought I would write those words) and watching them grow. Like sea monkeys. In a few months we'll see how my digital offspring fare in their crammed space.

Also, I hate blogs that play music automatically when the page loads.

New Google Reader feature: auto-add feeds from your Blogger blogroll - UPDATED x3

I just had this little notification pop up in my Google Reader. Apparently the web app has taken it upon itself to add feeds from the sites I have listed in my blogroll here at The Other Drummer.

It has the potential to be a nice touch, although so far I've noticed a few flaws:

• It's stuck at 49 unread articles when there is clearly only one unread post. Refreshing doesn't fix the problem.
  
• Fundamentally, doesn't it stand to reason that if I have a feed in my blogroll I've already added it to my RSS reader?
  
• That being said, the three blogs Reader added to my feeds are sites I've already subscribed to. They should compare the blogroll sites against my existing RSS feeds to prevent duplication.

Does anybody else have this feature? Is it working for you? What are your thoughts? Or did I get selected (again) by Google's divine providence?

UPDATE: Clicking the "Learn more" link in Reader took me to a Blogger Help page with an Internal Error/We Can't Find What You're Looking For message. The plot thickens.

UPDATE 2: I just logged in (it's now about 11:40 pm) and the feature is gone. I've checked out the forums over at the Google Reader Blog and three other people have reported the same thing. So far it doesn't look like it's being received well.

UPDATE 3: I just checked my site stats and have had five visitors today from Mountain View, California. Google...are you out there?