More notes on Google Earth

So I fired up Google Earth Plus today to see if any new cities have been imaged. I was greeted by this dialog:

I am not sure where to begin. There is so much wrong with this dialog from a usability standpoint that I am amazed it made it into the build:

1) Language: “The version of Google Earth Plus you are running needs to be upgraded now.” Yeah, who says? What klutz penned this little gem. Since when do developers get to demand upgrades. Sad.

2) Download: “Please download the new installer from http://www.keyholde.com/downloads/GoogleEarthPlus.exe.” OK, 10 pts. to whoever can spot the usability snafu here. Give up? Hello…this is the web…don’t give me a URL…give me a link or a button.

3) Feedback: “If you have any trouble with the upgrade or have beta feedback, please send it to kh_beta@google.com” Indeed I will send a link to this blog entry. Same deal…world wide web and all…where’s the link or button

4) Sign up!: Ouch! This is the saddest thing I see over and over again. I get emails/snail mail from companies wanting me to buy their product or sign up for their service. Get with the program, ye people of the idiot brigade. I am already a customer. If you can index the web and all the library content of the world, how difficult is it for you to figure out that I am a paying subscriber. Sad. Sad. Sad.

5) Overall: Someone at Google has not been alert. For at least the past 4-5 years, even the humblest of shareware apps have the ability to automatically fetch updates on-demand and usually unattended. Get with the program guys.

So, in typical fashion, what was to have been a 10-min interlude, turned out into a negative customer experience.

OK, now five minutes later, the download and update are done, and guess what…you got it…the stupid program wants me to restart my computer.

Earth to Google — Any intelligent life there that understands how to write good software? I was quite excited about Google Earth initially, but this kind of crap is a serious turn-off.