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Google Accelerator killed my website

March 6th, 2007 · 3 Comments

Wordbit has been down for the count for a few days due to an experimental Google app I unwisely installed. So, just in case you were thinking of trying out one of the apps in Google Labs, think again.

Google Accelerator ostensibly speeds up your Internet browsing by diverting web pages through their servers. The problem is that the program pre-fetches all websites on any given page. This is fine for public browsing at, say, a library. For website administration pages, it opens the doors to hell. Every option on the page will be pre-fetched by Google, including links to delete posts or change the language options, or whatever. When I discovered that Google Accelerator was messing up my WordPress Administration page to the point where I couldn’t click on anything without it going haywire, I hastily uninstalled it. In doing so, Google Accelerator took my entire website with it. Thankfully, I had recently made backups of my site (because I’ve recently switched to a new server).

Anyway, to make a long story short, in the end I had to delete everything and redirect my nameservers to fix the problem! So, everything should be back to normal now.

I think I trusted too much in Google because I’ve always loved everything they’ve put out there. This particular app, however, should go straight to Google’s recycle bin.

Tags: site Announcements · technology

3 responses so far ↓

  • Tom Johnson // Mar 10, 2007 at 12:34 am

    Thanks for the tip about Google Accelerator. I just discovered your site — it looks like you have great content. I love the theme too.

  • Antoine // Mar 10, 2007 at 9:09 pm

    Hi Tom,

    Thanks for the kind comment – I’ve just started this blog, so the encouragement means a lot to me. I’ve also recently discovered Tech Writer Voices, which is the bastion of the technical writing podcast world – I’m looking forward to the next one!

  • Greed for speed | wordbit // Mar 23, 2007 at 9:46 pm

    [...] After my nasty lesson with Google Accelerator you think I would have given up on my obsession with speeding up my Internet connection. Unfortunately, there’s nothing like the tantalizing lure of speed and power to blind even the most cautious of web surfers, especially if your Internet connection is agonizingly sluggish. [...]