Oh, Google—your lack of style & sloppiness amazes. I was setting up a new Google Apps account recently (for this very site, no less!) & I was appalled at the sheer amount of ugly junk on the Dashboard for my Google Apps account. Look at this:

Is this really what Google wants new users of Google Apps to have as a first impression? Starting with the first block, I see the following:

  • A yellow band telling me that Google Apps is getting a new look. This isn’t so bad, but I wish there was some way to dismiss it. Believe me, I’m well aware that Google Apps is getting a new look.
  • A large yellow band urging me to buy a Chromebook. Nope, don’t want it. Don’t want to see it again. Can’t dismiss it.
  • A large yellow band—complete with a hideous all-caps bright-red NEW—telling me that there are a bunch of things in the Google Apps Marketplace that I have absolutely no interest in checking out. Again, no way to get rid of it.
  • And finally, the pièce de résistance, four—count ’em, four—suggested Marketplace apps, none of which I want, and none of which I can hide.

What happened to the Google that used small, tasteful, relevant text ads that made money while still not annoying users? And remember, Google is trying to upsell new Google Apps users to move over to the $50 per year Business edition. Is this going to help encourage that move?

But that’s nothing compared to my next discovery. I decided to take matters into my own hand and hide some of those ugly ads with the Chrome AdBlock extension. I was able to easily nuke the Google Apps Marketplace junk, but something was off with the first two yellow bands, the ones about the new look & Chromebooks. I turned on Chrome’s Developer Tools & started poking around the HTML, only to discover this.

Here’s a closeup so you can examine it better.

Do you see it? Two DIVs, each with the same ID value. Tsk tsk tsk. That code wouldn’t validate under any circumstances. Not good, Google, not good. I expect better. Especially from a company whose raison d’être is the Web.

I mean, I can understand why Google is shoving large, ugly ads for crap I don’t want at me—it’s an advertising company at the core, after all, & it’s never been known for its design chops—but it’s also supposed to have some of the best programming talent on the planet at its disposal. And that talent is supposed to understand the Web. Right?