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Google Sync is sunk – what happened to the reliable Google of yesteryear?

Posted on 06 October 2009 by


google sync.jpg

On February 9, 2009 Google enabled wireless sync of both contacts and calendars between their service and iPhone and Windows Mobile phones. They did this by using Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology to wirelessly push the updates. On September 22, 2009 Google updated GoogleSync to include push Gmail for iPhone, Touch and Windows Mobile. Unfortunately the system worked seamlessly for all of about three or four days. Since then it had worked but with sporadic minor delays. On Saturday morning October 3, 2009 Larry noticed that all of Google’s properties were briefly off-line.

Since that fateful day my poor Googlesync has been sunk. While it will sync data between my iPhone and Google – it does so extremely sporadically and without any set schedule – certainly not meeting any definition of the word push. Googlesync is beta, so service interruptions are expected – and certainly excusable. But what happened to that “bullet proof” Google of the past? The service that never went down and was so available that many of us switched our email completely over to their Gmail platform?

Google Push Gmail

This post was written by:

- who has written 2131 posts on Gear Diary.

Wayne is a diehard Blackberry user and consultant specializing in Sage MAS90 Accounting Software. He lives in Glastonbury CT with his two children. When not helping them with their homework or pushing the latest school fundraiser off on his co-workers, he is active hiking, Scuba Diving and investigating all manner of technology.

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  • jkj1962

    Google, God love ‘em, is just trying to do too much too fast. They’re going to end up a “Jack of All Trades but Master of None” if they don’t pull back and regroup. All of their projects spend an eternity in beta because they don’t have the resources to keep them all going.

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  • http://www.geardiary.com Carly Z

    Google Sync has had problems since they added gmail…it was super flakey, improved for about three days, then flaked again. I have found it is rock solid as soon as you stop email sync, so I’m back to calendar/contacts only, with email on IMAP.

  • http://www.s-consult.com/index.php Wayne Schulz

    They seem to have returned to life sometime after 8pm EST yesterday. I’m still not getting push on my Win Mo device but the iPhone seems to sorta be working.

    I’ll reserve judgement until I see if it is working mid-afternoon. I know that in the past it’s started off well and then by mid-day (when West Coast and other time zones come online) it craps out.

    Funny thing is I remember when BlackBerry first moved to being used on cell phones and a very similar problem occurred. I remember it distinctly with my Nextel Blackberry that my service would be great until mid-day when suddenly it would slow, then halt. It would not return to normal until most of the users left for the day and the servers could catch up.