We're sorry, but Gmail is temporarily unavailable. We're currently working to fix the problem -- please try logging in to your account in a few minutes."
And 1 hour later...
"Server Error
We're sorry, but Gmail is temporarily unavailable. We're currently working to fix the problem -- please try logging in to your account in a few minutes."
The worst thing is, I am so dependent on Gmail that I can't get most of the work on my checklist done until it comes back online.
]]> Update: the machine speaks..."We are aware of a problem affecting a subset of our users. Our
engineers are currently working to find a solution. We expect to have
a fix as soon as we can. We appreciate your patience, and we
apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
That was 5 hours ago! The latest message a few minutes ago was:
"We have identified the root of this problem and are still working as
hard as we can to find a solution. We want to make sure you know that
we haven't forgotten you, and we sincerely apologize for the ongoing
inconvenience."
Grrrrrrr.
]]>I've written up Google for a Technorati "WTF". Vote up the story, and maybe we can hold their feet to the fire on this:
http://www.technorati.com/wtf/gmail/2007/03/27/gmail-is-down-1
]]>As we move to a more web services we should expect that there will be down times. Just remember though that this is probably better than having your laptop crash and losing all your data. I just spent a day recovering from a dead hardrive - It could have been far worse had I not been using salesforce.com for all my CRM information.
On a related note I guess having offline ability on these apps will mitigate the risk of downtime somewhat.
]]>Is anyone having issues with the google apps version of gmail?
My guess is the google apps gmail is separate from the normal gmail, as the storage space doesn't increase among other differences. No doubt everyone is aware, but they have just recently introduced a paid version which has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, hopefully that will be more reliable
]]>Re Glen: "On a related note I guess having offline ability on these apps will mitigate the risk of downtime somewhat."
YES!!
]]>flaming at Google over a GMail outage isn't productive. get used to this sort of thing, folks. as users try to migrate away from applications installed on their desktop/laptop to applications hosted somewhere out on the interweb you will see this sort of thing more and more and more.
it is just the nature of the beast, folks.
networks, applications (installed locally or hosted), whatever are created by imperfect humans and gosh-oh-golly-gee, THEY BREAK. there is no way around that. servers go down, networks don't work, applications fail, hardware crashes. all systems will fail some percentage of the time. no backup is ever perfect.
when you choose to use some application, you are accepting a set of risks. on your own PC, you can have all manner of failures, you can forget to make backups, etc. on some server-based app, they can fail to make backups, their backups can fail, they can go out of business and take your data with them, the networks can go down, etc. too often people do not think this sort of thing through as they make their choices.
ease up on google over this. you are just watching technology in action... get used to it.
]]>You raise some good points dennis. I now have my gmail back (yay!)....
]]>If you love google, then prepare to be goo !
Free Stuff doesn't give you any free right to complain to google.
Richard, you are the one who chose to use GMail, with their price (free!) but also with their terms of use. Let me quote this part of that:
Google disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, security or reliability of the Service. Google also reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Service with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you.
WeBreakStuff's Fred wrote about the issues with service dependency in 2005, which you might want to read.
]]>Sheesh folks, appreciate the "free" (unobtrusive ads) mail - best feature set and stop complaining over the occassionall outage. Your work email isn't perfect either is it?!
Why don't MS lovers complain about all the screen real estate taken up by ads and the slow screen load times!
]]>