Fathers Day Call Reminder puts Google in Dog House
Google sometimes reminds me of the big awkward kid in school who always does or says the wrong thing at the worse possible moment with the very best intentions. Father’s Day morning, in Gmail users’ reminder list appeared a “Call Dad” reminder under the “Call phone” icon. The sacrosanct email inbox was again violated by Google in an attempt to be warm, fuzzy and personal.
Google attempted take advantage of Father’s Day to revive their Gmail built-in voice calling feature that has languished since its official debut, however it did not create the desired warm fuzzy experience. Wanting to promote the integrated calling from Gmail, tell users it was free in the U.S. and promote calling rates, in the Gmail Blog New Tips and Tricks post “Give Dad a ring with free calling from Gmail in the U.S". in the post Google states that they are going to add a link in the reminder list to give Dad a call. To make matters worse the reminder could not be deleted, users had to contact the support forum to get instructions on removing the reminder.
When I saw the reminder in my inbox, Sunday morning, I just took it for what it was; Google wants me to take advantage of this app in hopes that I would integrate it in my life. I did not immediately assume that Google was making a comment on the current status of my relationship with my father. Several Gmail users contacted Google with complaints of insensitivity, being reminded about the loss of a parent, bad childhood and a range of other complaints.
I can see both sides of the situation, Google is a company with applications they want people to use, they want you integrate Google apps into your daily routine and on occasion go about it in a clumsy and somewhat ill planned way. Users should not take things like this as a personal comment on their past, current on ongoing family relationships. Seriously how would Google know? My husband who has recently loss his father, just looked at it and muttered something about “stupid Google” and walked away.
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