Gmail — Emails That Disappear
Do you think Gmail is rock-solid? Think again.
The Bug: Users reported issues with sent emails in February 2023. They showed up in spam and trash. Or even vanished into thin air.
Impact: Personal accounts lost booking confirmations and important requests. Business accounts had direct influence from it. People lost essential threads and contracts.
Google’s Response: The company confirmed the bug. They advised working to fix it. It took a few days to bring the balance back.
Bottom line: Keep backups. Even Gmail can lose your data.
Google Maps — Navigation Errors and Random Re-Routing
Google Maps is our guide, and we trust it. But it sometimes leads us off a cliff.
The Bug: There are cases where Google Maps navigation is playing a bad game. It might lead people into dangerous terrain, closed roads or simple loops.
Example: In Colorado (2023), dozens of drivers were sent down a muddy dirt road that became impassable. It looked like a shortcut. It wasn’t.
Another Case: Randomly changed ETAs and waypoints — even when standing still.
Google’s Fix: Blamed outdated map data. Pushed silent updates later.
Reminder: GPS isn’t gospel. If it looks wrong, it might be.
Google Photos — Face Grouping Glitches and Identity Mix-Ups
Google Photos promises to organize your life. Smart face recognition, automatic albums. Except when it messes up.
The Bug: The Face grouping feature misidentified people. Also, it combined unrelated faces and tagged the wrong person in the albums.
What Happened: Users found that their exes, friends, or even strangers were grouped as one person. It made private memories feel exposed or broken.
Worse: Some people got labelled with someone else’s name across devices — causing confusion and even emotional distress.
Google’s Position: They acknowledged the AI model wasn’t perfect, and gave a toggle to disable face grouping. No fix for incorrect merges, though.
Takeaway: When AI guesses wrong, it can get personal.
YouTube — The Broken Notifications Trap
YouTube runs on Google. And it breaks in weird ways.
The Bug: In 2022–2023, users and creators reported that notifications were not being sent for new video uploads or live streams.
The Problem: Subscribed users never got pinged. Some creators lost thousands of views because no one knew they posted.
Who It Hit: Everyone — casual watchers, top-tier influencers, and monetized channels.
Google’s Response: They confirmed delays and errors, blamed backend updates, and suggested people recheck the bell icon.
Result: Creators lost revenue. Viewers missed content. All because of “notifications.”
Headquarter: