Changing the Rules during the game

Google has been horrible about this. It is their two-sided sword. They are great with innovation, but they change usability of their software so often that they leave user's frustrated.

Example.

Today, a friend came by my cube and asked me to help her troubleshoot why she couldn't share a Google spreadsheet like she always has done. We found out two things with her use case:

1. A new message pops-up when a person trys to share a Google doc with someone. It says that the user does not have a Google account. "But we are a partner, shouldn't my work colleges have one? If they don't, why not have the system send a message saying to the recipient, "A Google doc has been shared with you.You will need to create a Google account to see the document." The person sharing the doc is Google's prime viral customer. If anyone should receive this message it should be the user that wants to see the doc.
   
2. When we try to share the spreadsheet with more than one person, a "captacha" screen now shows that says, "Type in what you see in the image." Funny. The graphic of the image is missing and doesn't show up. I bet they added this feature for security purposes. People forget too fast that when security is added, the usability must remain as constant as possible.
   

I have a tough time convincing people to use Google docs. I believe stuff like this is the reason why. Right now, no one knows if it is really a WYSIWYG environment, and no one knows if you can do the same functionality tomorrow as you do today.