Google Play Music Manager Takes a Silent Bow

Is it a crash? Is it a polite exit, like a date that goes badly but the girl has the kindness never to call again? 

Something like it seems to be going on with Google Music Manager, which is responsible for uploading files to Play's cloud music storage. The application launches, occupies its rightful place in the tray, but a mouseover event causes it to close. Nothing is thrown in the event log.

Google Support is accessible through Play help screens, using an Amazon-like Click-to-Call. On the second day of trying, contact with support was made. That was when the presence of this log was mentioned. Echelon 2 help will now take a look.

Analysis There's an application log, but the user isn't given any hints as to its location or how to interpret its contents. This is intentional, but for knowledgeable users -- equipped with a thoughtful FAQ -- some problems may be solved without help from the vendor. Whether it would help with this problem or not is unknown.

Update (28 Sep 2013) The only way to successfully re-install the application was to remove and recreate the working folder where the logs and other message files are stored. If you need the logs to later analysis, store them elsewhere before recreating the folder. The installer, probably by design, leaves the contents intact, but if there are problems there, they are never resolved. The original cause of the problem remains unknown, but the app becomes usable again after following this recipe.

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Google\MusicManager

Technology models undermined by business models

Elder technologists will say it was inevitable, but it's still unfortunate to learn (as from Nelson Minar) that previously free and open technologies are abandoned because -- guessing here -- they don't draw a straight line to the bottom line. For years, the Google SOAP search API has been the prime example of an open web service for those learning about web services for the first time. Now we learn that it's been put on "end of life" status. And Google Answers? Nice service, nice idea, free: now gone. For now, the Ajax search API remains, but you have to wonder.

Although technical complaints with SOAP have been aired (echoing the words of colleague Mike Kocka), the larger issue is that it may be time to question business models based upon "free" APIs such as those provided by Flickr, de.licio.us and other Google APIs. It was a nice meal while it lasted, perhaps, but won't satisfy the capitalist appetite.