Iz in Yur Identity System
I’ve written previously about my struggles with Google and its deeply b0rked identity system. It’s also a pet peeve of Boris’s.
Inspired by Google’s recent acquisition of FeedBurner (where, yes, I have at least one account), I wanted to render my pain as a diagram. I doubt I’ve got the order of sign-ups exactly correct, but it’s in the ballpark. All of the email addresses are fake variations of the real thing. Maybe I should have been more responsible along the way, but clearly the issue here isn’t all PEBCAK.
Identity fiends may also be interested in my little video parable about user names and passwords.


May 26th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Dugg: http://digg.com/tech_news/Explaining_Google_s_screwed_up_identity_system_via_lolcat
May 26th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Thanks for the Diggage, Derek.
May 26th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I don’t think the kitten’s expression is pained enough.
I have been hating google lately. They’re trying to automatically integrate some of my accounts now and it’s driving me bonkers. Why are there no clear instructions for how to do any of this crap. AHHHHHHHHH, you’ve awaken my google monster headache. Thanks Darren.
May 26th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
[…] Iz in Yur Identity System | DarrenBarefoot.com (tags: identity) […]
May 27th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
And let’s not get into their UI integration problems…
Totally agree Darren. I’m a serious fan of Google’s products, but they have a serious secrecy problem. It’d just be nice if they had a single blog where the Google Engineers could just post single sentences like:
“Started working on integrating the navigation bar into Reader”
or
“Yes, we are listening - we’re attempting to make multiple signatures in Gmail a reality”
Even if nothing comes of any of the updates or progress was slow, it would remove a bit of the feeling of shouting at an immovable giant mega-corporation. Seriously, how many times have you signed up for a new service or product only to find that Google releases something better the next week? If they just told us that it might happen soon, I’d wait!
July 5th, 2007 at 1:33 am
[…] 是一个由 Darren Barefoot 制作的视频,展现了大约是在2006年的互联网上的某一天 […]
July 29th, 2007 at 7:33 am
[…] Name and Password” is a video by Darren Barefoot showing a typical day on the internet, circa 2006 (it’s got a catchy tune, too). [Thanks […]
December 16th, 2007 at 8:20 am
[…] Google bought FeedBurner, I abused the power of LOLCats to complain about Google’s incredibly fractured identity system. I had at least a half-dozen […]