Biting the hand that blogs you

Is Google taking a page from the dreaded Microsoft's book? You know, the one that says your clients should do everything -- all the time -- with you?

I finally signed up for a Gmail account. I'd resisted until now, because I don't really need a Gmail account. But then I wanted to use the Picasa web albums feature, and the calendar program was pretty handy, and before I know it I'm signed in as soon as Firefox opens up, by default.

Well that's all fine until I try to use Blogger and my usual sign-in name is gone, replaced with my Gmail address. Blogger wants me to sign in using my Gmail account, which means I now have to rummage around to find my original username and password, since my browser is no longer remembering them for me (having been hijacked by the good folks at Google). Blogging is pretty easy, of course, but now it involves an extra -- and unwanted -- step. Thanks Google. Let's hope this isn't the start of a very ugly trend.