Since Google now owns Performics, they are obviously pushing to bring it more in line with their other products. First, they made publishers set up payments through AdSense. Other than the fact that now we only get paid once a month instead of twice, that move doesn’t really bother me that much. But just like I knew they would, they are trying to force us to start using a Google Account to login. And this is really pissing me off!
Like most people, I use several of the services Google offers. I have several Gmail accounts (both personal and professional). I even use iGoogle, despite its awful name. Then there is AdSense, Analytics, and AdWords. And for a very short period, I even used blogger. All of these products use Google Accounts. But the only problem is not all of them use the same one. So anytime I go from one Google product to another, it tries to keep me logged into the same account. I never really liked this, but this was never a major problem for me in the past. But now that Google is moving towards making Google Accounts required to log into Performics, this is going to be a major inconvenience for me. And yes, I called it Performics and always will. Google Affiliate Network is just too long to say and GAN just sounds like something you would catch from a Tijuana hooker. “Sorry guys, I would love to go out drinking, but my GAN is flaring up real bad.”
Every morning I run a report to get a broad overview of where my accounts are at. This requires me to be logged into both AdWords and Performics. So now that Google tricked me into switching my Performics logins to Google Accounts by making seem like I couldn’t log into my accounts unless I did, each morning I have to log into AdWords, start running a report, and then log out so I can check my Performics accounts. Then once I am done with that, log back into AdWords.
Now, all those times that I switch from one Google product to another, I get annoyed that I have to hit a log out button each time because it tries to log me in under a different name. So I thought maybe there was some setting in the Google Accounts that would keep this from happening. Maybe a setting that made it so that just because I was logged into one Google product, I wasn’t logged into all of them. There are people out there that I would let check my Gmail account for me that I would not want looking in my AdWords account or my AdSense account, so this just makes sense. But no, there are no options like that that I could find.
So I thought I would just contact someone at Google and see if there was a way to do it that I just didn’t see. Word to the wise: never try to contact Google through anything other than AdWords, because it’s just a giant clusterfuck. I ended up posting something in the “Affiliate Network Help Forum.” There, a Google Employee under the name Kariyushi said, “There is a green box below the login boxes that says ‘Stay logged in.’ Uncheck it. Other than that, you will have to log out/in each time you want to switch Google Accounts.” So I have to hit sign out every time. Is it sad that this bothers me so much that I am considering using different browsers to access different products so that this doesn’t affect me? Maybe use Internet Explorer to access Performics, Firefox to access AdWords, and Safari to access AdSense? But screw Chrome. I think Google already has enough information about me already. Now if you excuse me, I have to wrap my computer in more tinfoil.
