When a pretty popular Internet company witnesses a flaw in a product -- which will inevitable happen -- the speed to which it applies a working fix is something that doesn't get much press in the mainstream news circuit, although it should. Why? Because the speed and efficiency at which these companies can patch holes in their products relates directly to the confidence levels its customers have. Ask anyone with a Microsoft Windows PC about that concept.

Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Gmail web-based email service was exposed just this week regarding the way in which it handles the "contact list" inside itself. This is the feature that allows a fast way to send an email to several people at one without remembering all those email addresses. A potential hack was discovered that could have allowed an unscrupulous spammer how to leech stored email addresses inside a Gmail account and add those email addresses to the stockpile.

Within about 30 hours, Google had allegedly fixed the problem and the potential exploit was nixed. Do other web-based companies repair issues as quickly? If so, what are some examples? Generally, the issues that web-based companies have can be repaired, and deployed, pretty fast over the web.

There are no hordes of machines to update and so forth. Does this strategy increase customer confidence in the products that Google makes? It does for me. I know nothing is perfect, but a quick response to issues is what keeps me as a customer satisfied and loyal. Long delays and non-communication? Well, that sends me to the competition.