Don’t Mess with the Google

This is a general service announcement - meant to help Pencil Artists and anyone else marketing their artwork or business on the web.

If you have a Google account you have probably used some of the associated perks – like gmail, blogger, analytics, alerts, etc. Many of us use one or more of these nifty features. And it is easy to forget “what is linked to what.”

So, I’m going to give you an easy piece of advice: never, never delete your Google account! The reason? Once you delete a Google account, it is gone, gone, GONE as soon as you hit the button!

Earlier this year a friend contacted me for assistance in finding out why her blog had disappeared from cyberspace. It turned out that, in an effort to streamline email addresses, she had deleted her Google account. Of course she completely forgot that years ago we had set up the google account so that she could start a blog! Once she deleted the account, the blog became history as they say, along with everything else linked to that account (including all those inbound links to her website and other resources.)

While many services offer some sort of grace period with deleting an account, Google does not. Delete in the Goog-World means D-E-L-E-T-E! There is no Un-Do, no reset, get out of jail free card.

So be careful with those Google accounts. You might want to keep your ID and password somewhere safe, even if you think you don’t want the account anymore.