Bye bye Parishightech, hello Digitalfrog

I have now switched to a new blog site, Digital Frog. I have been unhappy about the way the blogger platform has developed since it was taken over by Google a few years ago. This is not to say that Google is in any way "nasty", it just stems from what Google does for its living: it links all the different things we do together into a virtual matrix -a bit like the film of the same name. Charles Arthur explained it very clearly recently in this article in The Guardian. My various blogs became linked with my gmail address. Not only the ones written under a pseudonym, but also ones that I had set up for other people! Then my blog photo turned up on my gmail account, all got linked to Google+ and even the Android apps I have installed on my assorted half dozen phones and tablets - and I like to have several different identities for Android to get round geographical restrictions. Even being as careful as possible when signing in to the various sites and avoiding obvious pitfalls, the link is eventually made. I daresay the only way of being absolutely certain is to have a different computer for each function - rather OTT.

Another problem is that Google doesn't really handle multi-lingual usage very well, which is a problem for someone who regularly uses more than one language.

The last straw came when Google 'lost' my domain name. The last time it came up for renewal was after my bank card had been updated. So, the renewal did not go through. anyone would expect a professional service to inform the customer that there was a problem with the payment. In the case of Google, it simply cancelled the site! Driving home the adage that it is not the bloggers and emailers that are the customers, they are the product! The real customers are the advertisers. Attempts to contact Google's customer relations department in an attempt to recover the domain name provide further confirmation for this viewpoint. In the meantime, the domain name turned up on a site selling domain names by auction, for a very much higher price than I had paid originally. Perhaps that was the real reason the domain got 'lost'.

Carton Rouge pour France Telecom

The first of this year's red cards goes to France Telecom for its tactics during the summer period. The incumbant has had to face pressure from the alternative operators in its historical area of land line telephone services. This summer, it sent out its bi-monthly bills to customers in early August as usual. But what has changed this year is the length of time it gave its customers to cough up. It was shortened to just ten days, running from the date at the top of the invoice. Taking postal delays into account, this is barely more than a week. Significantly, the final date falls just before the 15 August holiday week-end. So, as well as hitting the French who take the month of August for their annual vacation, it also hits the significant number that takes the month from the 14 July national holiday to 15 August. This year August 15 fell on a Saturday, so many people came back at the end of the week-end.
For many years France Telecom has been issuing its bills in early August, reasoning officially that the way the dates fall is a matter of luck and people should take that into account when going away. But the way the company has shortened the deadline for paying the bill this year is really suspicious. Anyone would think they are deliberately trying to catch people out. Surely not!