After having several Android phones over 3.5 years, plus being a Google Apps (gmail, etc) user for forever, I’ve grown to enjoy what Google makes. But that doesn’t mean I like Google. But it’s also hard for me to say what I dislike about their products, services, philosophy, etc.

It’s hard for me to say this, because I don’t mind when other companies (Apple) do this, but one problem I have is Google’s insistence that it knows what I want best. I recently had to turn off Location Services on my phone because Google would give me public transit directions to some place hours away in Marin. I would dismiss it multiple times per day, yet it would return that evening, the next morning and repeat. I’m disappointed, because I really enjoyed the feature of seeing the public transit schedule home and to work immediately on my phone each morning and evening. I shouldn’t have to turn off a useful feature because Google’s strong insistence that I really want to go somewhere else.

These kind of things are what prevent a lot of amazing features of Google services from really being, well, amazing.