For the last 2 weeks Google Reader hasn’t been working properly. You try to view the items but it just never syncs, anything you read will immediately be marked “unread” again.
Based on the many comments on Twitter I can only conclude one cause: STC. But I guess they don’t care about their customers or they should have fixed it already.
The possible solutions are: 1) Visit the secure https version of Google Reader. 2) Use a Google reader client instead of a web browser. 3) Change your DNS.
I hope that STC will fix this issue as soon as possible.
Update: More people are having problems (here and here). The problem is apparently caused by using any external DNS (Google DNS for example). This is very weird.
This is not surprising. Some STC customers (including me, Muneeb in Dhahran and Abdullah in Riyadh) are having problems accessing Google. This appears to be random because others told me that it’s working properly.
This is not only effecting searches but Google Reader, Google Analytics, Youtube and other services! This is the error message by the way:
Network Error (tcp_error)
A communication error occurred: “Operation timed out”
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.For assistance, contact your network support team.
Please, STC: fix your servers already.
Google’s very own “Google Groups Guide” Google group is blocked for no known reason. This is a Google Groups help and support forum. Here’s more info about it:
The Google Groups Help Forum is the primary channel for getting your Groups questions answered. You’ll find that this community is always buzzing with activity. Get ready to meet some expert users of Google Groups who’ll provide friendly advice about the product (if you’re nice to them). The Google Groups Guide and Groups Guide Ray, Google employees, regularly monitor this unmoderated Help Forum. The Guides will only respond to questions if there is valuable information to share with our users that has not already been provided by the Forum’s resident experts! Messages from Google employees will appear with a blue “G” badge.
From the description I see no reason to have it blocked. Here is the blocked URL:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-groups-guide/
To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.
To celebrate The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s National Day, the Google Saudi Arabia homepage has changed the logo to the following:
The logo was previewed on Google Arabia’s facebook page hours before the beginning of September 23rd.
Additionally, Google has launched a Saudi Arabia edition of Google news a few days ago (via ArabCrunch).
Update: YoutubeIslam.com is now down. There was not anti-Islamic conspiracy. Youtube didn’t use the site to push inappropriate content. So these statements “والذي تحاول جوجل أن تستولي عليه لعرض مقاطعها الرديئة” and “وحسب ما ذكر بأنه سيتم تحويل الدومين إلى أحد صفحات يوتيوب التي لا ترضي المسلمي” were just wrong.
YoutubeIslam.com has been renamed to TubeIslam. I am not really sure what’s this talk about “Google trying to steal youtubeislam”. The owners claim that Google will replace the site with “Google ads & videos against Islam”.
“Youtube” a Google trademark and they have the right to protect their trademarks. Microsoft didn’t allow a developer to name his program “Windows Commander” for example. I am sure Google just don’t want them to use the name.
From the ICANN blog:
Google has a trademark in “YouTube”, the very well-known video site, and it argued that the current registrant did not have rights in the name and that it was using the site in “bad faith” – which is a legal term interpreted by the arbiter, but in this case might mean using the site to attract visitors by appearing to associate yourself with someone else.
Found the news about the rename from tech-wd. Read mroe about ICANN.
The Google Wireless Transcoder is a simple tool that rearranges websites for mobile phone web browsers. This service is enabled by default on Google searches made on Nokia phones without an easy method to disable them.
The service is completely blocked in Saudi Arabia and most mobile phone users are annoyed by this block. It is easy to have a smart filter on google.com/gwt/n instead of blocking the whole service.
Let’s get it unlocked as soon as possible and to do so fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.
Microsoft released Maren for Windows. Maren is a keyboard add-on utility that converts Arabic text written in English to Arabic. For example I can write 5aled and get “خالد” (Khaled). Watch a short video demonstrating Microsoft Maren here.
This is not the first service. Google Labs have the “Google ta3reeb” service. Which is basically a dynamic text area that converts the text.
But before Google, Yamli was the first service as far as I know. They have an online editor was well.