The idea behind a Google Account is that you can use one single username and password to use various services that Google offers. However, Google Accounts continue to be in chaos due to a single user having various types of accounts in the form of Regular Google Accounts, Google Apps Accounts and Non-Gmail Google Accounts. Moreover the integration between Google’s own services leaves much to be desired.
1. Google Accounts and Google Apps Accounts
A Google Apps account created using Google Apps for Your Domain is currently separate from a regular Google Account resulting in Google Apps users being treated as second-class Google citizens. Since Google Apps users usually have at least one regular Google account, they cannot identify themselves with a single Google identity on the internet and it becomes difficult to manage two separate identities while using Google’s services.
Google’s various services such as Blogger, Picasa, Reader, Groups, Adwords, Analytics and Webmaster Tools are still not offered from within Google Apps.
2. Non-Gmail Google Accounts and Gmail based Google Accounts
If you were using Google services such as Google Groups or Orkut using a non-Gmail email address and later on you signed up for a Gmail address separately, there is no way to integrate the new Gmail based Google account with your older non-Gmail Google account.
Google only provides you the option of upgrading a non-Gmail Google account to a completely new Gmail based Google account. But if you have already created those two accounts separately, then there is no option to integrate both the accounts.
3. Conflict of Blogger with Google Sites
Since Google Sites (provided as a part of Google Apps) is too basic to be of any good use, many users prefer to use Blogger. Google Apps and Blogger use the same ghs.google.com nameserver. So when Google Apps users who have Google Sites enabled decide to sign up for Blogger’s Custom Domain feature, Blogger sees another file hosted in Google Apps and produces an error “Another blog is already hosted at this address.”
Conclusion:
Google is promoting integration of various services and a single sign on system across the internet through initiatives such as OpenSocial, OpenID and DataPortability. However, a closer look back home shows that integration within Google’s own accounts and services is in so much chaos that Google needs to clean up its home beforehand.
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