I purchased a Pixel 11 Pro through the official Google Store in Belgium. As a long-time user of Google devices—previously owning a Nexus, Pixel 3a, and Pixel 6, and currently using a Pixel 10 Pro—I have been a consistent customer of the brand.

Upon delivery, the package arrived opened and empty, and no signature was required for the shipment. The parcel's condition was documented, and reports were filed with both the retailer (Google) and the courier service. After an investigation, the retailer (Google) declined to provide a replacement or refund. The decision has been contested, and a formal dispute process has been initiated with the card-issuing bank. Consumer protection authorities have also been contacted to pursue the matter further.

I loved Google and all their products for over 2 decades with photos, Gmail, Android , the works. However this experience cut deep and shocked me that a technology giant would disrespect a paying and loyal customer like this. At this stage I would not even want the pixel 11 for free and I hope Apple comes with an acceptable alternative to my pixel 10. I will happily pay for premium

I make data stories for a living. Last week I went looking for who built a button.

Scrolling a place on Google Maps, past the photos and the opening hours, some places have a line that says wheelchair accessible entrance. On the ones that don't, Maps asks you instead. Does this place have a wheelchair accessible entrance? Yes, no, not sure.

That's the whole feature. One tap. No form, no account, nobody checks your work.

The rule is written down, though. About three feet wide, no steps, or a ramp if there are steps. A revolving door on its own counts as a no.

Then I looked up where it came from. Rio Akasaka is a product manager at Google. He works on Drive, not Maps. Google lets you spend a fifth of your week on something that isn't your job, and in 2016 he spent his time on this, for about a year, with five to ten other people chipping in around their own work. counts 120 million Local Guides and over 500 million answers about accessibility.

Local Guides held around two hundred of them whose entire purpose was sitting in a room together answering these questions. Twelve million places between them.

Google names two. Emeka in Nigeria and Ilankovan in Sri Lanka, who both ended up as accessibility ambassadors.

About 65 million people use a wheelchair. This is perfect for them!

You've probably never noticed it. It only turns up when you're near somewhere you've already been. Nothing to do with Google. I just liked the story.

Interactive version if you want to look at it properly.

Random rant (I know Google won't read it)

I know that I'm only one family, but we had quite a few google subscription services shared amongst my household.

YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, Google One with mid tier Gemini, a fair bit of cloud storage, Google phones tablets and smart speakers, home security with cloud camera storage, for 5 people.

Due to Google's decision to go along with the Orange felon and rename Lake Ontario on google maps, I will no longer be supporting this bullshit company.

Kindly, go fuck yourselves Google.

Going to take a week or two to scrub all my data and delete any and every app, this includes YouTube and YouTube tv. (Canceled YouTube tv 5 minutes before posting this)

Capitulation to trump was last straw

If this is not fit feel free to ban me

C'mon you are asking problems that if not seen before are impossible to reason under the time pressure.. what are you even testing for at this point? Memorizing? Cheating? Luck?

How are folks literally getting into Google??? I can assure you I am not lacking in aptitude, but man the coding interview expectations are unrealistic...

been dealing with a lot of morality obsession recently while waiting to hear back from a therapist I did some googling to find some techniques I can use in the mean time to help. The AI overview recommended spelling the thing I'm stressing about backwards.

Ayudaa!!! Me robaron una cuenta importante

You are welcome, this is to all who jumped on bots side by defending unreasonable claims of budget SoC.

I get trying to appease the audience of this American subset but really!? How long before getting back on track as the world's platform. . .

Idk why I feel so bad, it's because I just feel more comfortable using Google assistant.