UPDATE:
Thanks to an anonymous commenter, I appear to be back in business (on one browser). They key is to enable the multiple sign-on option in each account:
https://www.google.com/accounts/b/0/ManageAccount?hl=en
I just tried it, and I’m back to being able to do everything within Firefox.
***
I have been a long-time Google user. For example, I’m probably the only person in the world who signed up for Blogger in 2001 who is still using it as their primary blogging platform.
When Gmail came out, I lobbied for early access so I could make sure I got my name (thanks Hunter!).
PBworks uses Google Apps for email and calendaring, and in general, it’s been a good service.
So imagine my horror when I discovered this morning that I could no longer use my Gmail account and my Google Apps account in the same browser window.
This poses a major problem, because it means I can’t access my calendar (tied to Google Apps) and Google Reader (tied to Gmail) in the same browser window. I face a similar choice with email and Blogger.
Fortunately for me, I’m a dinosaur who still uses POP3 and Outlook as my primary email client. But I’m still going to have to split my Google world into two browsers to make things work. I’ll be using my Gmail account in Firefox so that I can still access Blogger and Google Reader, and I’m using my Google Apps account in Chrome so I can access my calendar and webmail.
And while I’m a technical dolt, the very smart people around me are facing the same issues, so it’s not just my imagination.
I’m grateful to Google for all it’s given me over the years, but I really hope that the good folks there are able to figure out a fix for this craziness soon.
What are you doing to deal with the new Google Account rules?
Very dumb. I face the same problems bouncing between company accounts and personal accounts. In Chrome, I sometimes use an Incognito window to keep both open at the same time.
Yep my solution has been to use a combination of chrome, safari and MailPlane to balance all my google accounts (I have 4 I semi-regularly use!)
If google can't solve it better, I would expect some bored developer to make a browser plugin that manages cookies intelligently to help users interface to google.
Have you tried enabling the multiple sign-on option? It is turned off by default
https://www.google.com/accounts/b/0/ManageAccount?hl=en
Once enabled on all your accounts (yes, you have to enable it on each account separately) you should be able to switch between accounts using the switcher at the top left of most Google apps.
I find it works fairly well for using multiple Google accounts in the same browser at the same time!