Bad Week for Google: Gmail App Fails

If you are an iPhone 4S owner, you are or have probably complained at least once about the battery life. Short lived and frustrating, the battery your iPhone 4S possesses isn’t what upgrades should aspire to have. In fact, many owners are complaining that they’ve had to charge their new version of the iPhone much more often than their previous one. In a former blog post, I compared the specs of both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S (as you will see, they have very similar attributes), and the specs lead you to believe that technology isn’t being completely truthful to us. By now, iPhone owners are pretty much used to complaining but here’s at least one more reason to vent – Google.

Google had a bad week. They launched new versions of Google Reader and gmail, released their new iOS gmail app to the public and announced that Google would be redirecting searchers to a secure server for those who are logged into their gmail account (technically, this announcement was a couple weeks ago but a big deal for SEO). This basically means all search queries from logged in users are privately held on Google’s server.

Anyway, back to the iPhone 4S. If you own one of these or any other apple related gadget that can upload apps AND you’re a big twitter-er then you probably saw this tweet yesterday from Gmail’s official handle (@gmail):

“The iOS app we launched today contained a bug with notifications. We have pulled the app to fix the problem. Sorry we messed up.”

Big deal. I mean seriously, what was the difference between this new app and the mobile version anyway? You can’t check multiple accounts or even view them within one universal inbox either. Between the gmail app launch and immediate “abort” and the mixed reviews Google has received for their new Google Reader, you almost begin to cringe and wonder if one company is just trying to do too much?

Google’s roots are planted in its search engine. Today the company has spread itself across many different products and services. From social networking, search-based services and maps to unmanned cars, numerous mergers (youtube & twitter) and beer, Google seems like it’s on a mission to do it all.

Sure, bad weeks happen. We’ve all had them, and I severely doubt that Google will replicate one of these weeks again anytime soon. But, I will close with this one question. At what point does one company begin to doubt its world domination (I know, slightly over the top)?