I’ve written previously about my struggles with Google and its deeply b0rked identity system. It’s also a pet peeve of Boris’s.
Inspired by Google’s recent acquisition of FeedBurner (where, yes, I have at least one account), I wanted to render my pain as a diagram. I doubt I’ve got the order of sign-ups exactly correct, but it’s in the ballpark. All of the email addresses are fake variations of the real thing. Maybe I should have been more responsible along the way, but clearly the issue here isn’t all PEBCAK.
Identity fiends may also be interested in my little video parable about user names and passwords.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Dugg: http://digg.com/tech_news/Explaining_Google_s_screwed_up_identity_system_via_lolcat
Thanks for the Diggage, Derek.
I don’t think the kitten’s expression is pained enough.
I have been hating google lately. They’re trying to automatically integrate some of my accounts now and it’s driving me bonkers. Why are there no clear instructions for how to do any of this crap. AHHHHHHHHH, you’ve awaken my google monster headache. Thanks Darren.
And let’s not get into their UI integration problems…
Totally agree Darren. I’m a serious fan of Google’s products, but they have a serious secrecy problem. It’d just be nice if they had a single blog where the Google Engineers could just post single sentences like:
“Started working on integrating the navigation bar into Reader”
or
“Yes, we are listening – we’re attempting to make multiple signatures in Gmail a reality”
Even if nothing comes of any of the updates or progress was slow, it would remove a bit of the feeling of shouting at an immovable giant mega-corporation. Seriously, how many times have you signed up for a new service or product only to find that Google releases something better the next week? If they just told us that it might happen soon, I’d wait!