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January 9, 2008

Blacklisted from Google Notebook

Many web applications have limitations that are not disclosed to users. If you happen to use an application too frequently or upload too much data, your access will be disabled. In most cases, you'll see a message that informs you about the penalty, but Google Notebook chose a different strategy: showing a 404 error message.

"Back on December 20, I wrote about my frustration with Google Notebook, which I use every day as a way to archive much of what I read online (...). For some off reason, it seemed like Google Notebook was down, and yet I could find no other description of the issue online, which made me think I must be mad," writes Ran Barton.

He received a message from Google that explained the problem. "Your account was accidentally blacklisted by a blacklisting heuristic that looked at total size of notebook information. We've revised the heuristic, so you shouldn't be accidentally blacklisted again in the future."

9 comments:

  1. Mmmmkay. Please don't blacklist me even though I can be perfectly happy with Zoho Notebook...even though they don't have a Firefox Plugin to allow easy clipboard functionality. I still like Google Notebook though.

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  2. When we face this kind of problem - a technical problem with the Google tools - whom we must rely?

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  3. If you know there are limitations you decide if you dedicate your time to learn and use a web application. We know that as an application is more open and useful its popularity is greater.

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  4. its a work in progress just like any other google project.... there are things they do and then they change later on down the road. if a feature is bad Im sure letting them know would be a good thing.

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  5. All my Bookmarks are in Google Bookmarks. Now that they have the integration with G-Bookmarks and Notebook, I kind of need them both.

    I wouldn't know what to do if I got blacklisted.

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  6. Ahh guys and gals.
    Relax
    You can use it again? Yes So relax, it was just a problem.
    Remember growing pains are a reality and ereryone makes mistakes, they MUST just fix them.

    I really don't have a problem.

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  7. Is this in any way related to google maps. Where if you view a lot of google arial maps in a short time it decides to pretend the images are unavailible?

    Danny.

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  8. Thanks for the coverage. I really wish Google's heuristic had notified me when it placed me on its blacklist - then I would have known where to look for help.

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  9. It's ok if Google restricts usage as needed, but they do need to notify the user, and make an accessible path to address this if/when it occurs.

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