Google’s Recent Bugs: SMS Spam, Safe Filter Stuck, News Fonts & Google Docs Spam

In the past day or so, I have spotted at least four somewhat major bugs with Google’s various products. They include Google sending dozens of unwanted SMS messages to thousands of users, Google’s safe filter not working properly, Google News using an unusually large font size and Google Docs has a major spam issue as well. Besides all of these issues, don’t forget about the huge malware issue with Google over the weekend.

Last night, for a period of four hours, Google was sending dozens and dozens of SMS messages to users over and over again. There are hundreds of complaints in the Google forums, where it took Google about four hours to isolate the issue. Many users report receiving 30 or more unwanted text messages. Google said the issue was with a “mobile aggregator used by many mobile providers.” Google recommends you call your mobile provider if you pay per text message and need a refund. The issue was resolved at about 1am (EST) this morning.

In addition, Google’s safe search image filter was stuck last night. Many users complained that they were unable to change the safe search filter. Google confirmed the issue and said they would issue a fix. The fix came at about about 2:30am (EST) this morning and now users can change their safe search preferences.

If you visit Google News, you may see an unusually large font size on the home page. Google confirmed the issue and said they are working on a fix. But it still seems to be impacting some users. I personally did not experience this problem.

Finally, Monday, I reported an influx of Google Docs spam. What happened was many users noticed dozens of new docs show up in their Google Docs list. These users tried to remove these unwanted Docs, but they kept on reappearing. Google confirmed the issue over the weekend and confirmed that no accounts have been compromised. This is not impacting all Google Docs users, but it is impacting a fair number of users. We do not yet have confirmed reports that it has been fixed yet.

Five bugs with Google in a matter of a few days. I would not classify any of these bugs as minor, especially the malware issue, SMS spam and Docs spam.