Ask yourself this question. What would you do if you woke up one day and found that your Google Accounts have all been wiped off the face of the internet — vanished, as if they never even existed. For some, I suppose, this may be a non-issue, but for a lot of people living deep within the Google universe, it could be a nightmare.

This is exactly what I am dealing with right now. On July 6, 2010, I attempted to log into my Gmail account and received the following error message:

The username or password you entered is incorrect

I tried a few more times. Then a few more times. Nothing. Hmm. I tried logging into some of my other Google services,… Calender, Reader, Docs, etc…, and got the same error message. After a few more unsuccessful attempts, I gave up and decided to initiate a password recovery, only to receive the following message:

There are no Google Accounts currently registered to the username skyecade@gmail.com.

Panic ensued. I spent the morning trying to figure out what went wrong, but to no avail. My Google Account was gone, and with it, my Gmail, Gtalk, Docs, Reader, Calendars, Buzz, Profile, Youtube, Wave, Voice, Analytics, and Feedburner account. Half a decades worth of content and several gigabytes of emails, feeds, documents, appointments, contacts, voicemails, and videos, all vanished without a trace. Incidentally, I can’t access my Blogger, Picassa, Orkut, or Jaiku accounts either, but since I rarely use them, I didn’t mention them in the list above. (Scratch that, I do have access my Jaiku account.)

At this point, I’m going to assume that my account still exists on some server out there in Google land. That may be wishful thinking though. For all I know, my account may have been hacked, molested, and then deleted. The worst part is — I can’t get a hold of Google to find out. Their support is nonexistent. They have an account recovery form that you can fill out (assuming I still have an account to recover), but it seems to be completely automated. I get this response within minutes of submitting the form:

Thank you for your report. We’ve completed our investigation and cannot
return your account at this time. We were unable to verify that you own
this account based on the information you provided.

And then after a few more submissions:

Thank you for your report. For account security, we limit the number of
requests that can be processed about the same account. Please wait a few
days and try filling out the form again.

The account recovery form consists of questions regarding Gmail, Blogger, and Orkut. Two of these services I don’t even use. The third, Gmail, I created 5 or 6 years ago and can’t remember a lot of the specifics, such as the exact date I opened the account or the recovery email address I used when I signed up. But I did the best I could and submitted the form over and over again hoping to get a different response. Perhaps even a human response.

The part that kills me is that it would be so easy to verify my account. Google has my cell phone number. They could just call me. Or text me. I also have a verified name on my Google Profile that can only be obtained via credit card or social security number. How much more verification do you need than that? Or perhaps they could verify my account through my Google Analytics or Voice or Docs. Anything is better than having to answer questions about Orkut. The process seemed a bit antiquated for a company that all but dominates the Internet.

So yes, I’m frustrated with this whole ordeal. It’s been two weeks and I haven’t come any closer to finding out what happened to my account and I can’t find anyway to contact Google. This has, however, made me seriously rethink my stance on cloud computing. For one thing, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Having all Google services tied together under one account probably isn’t the best idea. Two, sync (formerly known as backup). Once upon a time I used to tell people that the harddrive would become obsolete. I hope I’m wrong. Being able to access your data on the cloud is a huge advantage, but as I’ve learned, there is nothing like a good old fashioned local copy. Developer’s of applications such as Dropbox, Evernote, FeedDemon, and even Google, to an extent, see the benefits of syncing across multiple computers, while still utilizing the cloud for convenience. I really hope this trend continues.

So that’s my sad story. Google, if you’re out there, give me a call. You have my number. In fact, you gave it to me. If my account is gone, so be it. Life goes on. I should have been more proactive in safeguarding my data and a lot less reliant on the cloud. I take full responsibility for that. But it would still be nice to know what exactly happened and whether or not I can ever expect to get my account back. For now, I guess, all I can do is sit back and wait…