"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."
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.
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Hey, I've had to endure the same outage.
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
Posted by: Daniel | March 27, 2007 1:22 PM
Fortunately, this outage hasn't effected me... I use hosted gmail, and haven't experienced any issues all day long...
Posted by: Chris Harrison | March 27, 2007 1:26 PM
Gmail going down is a startling reminder at how much trust many of us place in services like Google to keep their nose to the grindstone when it comes to keeping these services up and running.
Posted by: Brandon | March 27, 2007 1:31 PM
I always encounter this message! Gmail is really nice, organizes well my emails, has a great UI, but don't expect much, it's still beta indeed. I've seen horrible stories on Digg; people lost their Gmail accounts, all their emails and files, without any prior notice from Google.
Posted by: Emre Sokullu | March 27, 2007 1:33 PM
Still a beta!!! It's nearly 3 years old!!!! This is unacceptable, but it has made me realize I need to sort my backup options out again (I had been doing backups of gmail, but then I got lazy....too comfortable perhaps).
Posted by: Richard MacManus | March 27, 2007 1:35 PM
I use hosted Gmail as well. It's been down all afternoon!!
Posted by: Jay Meattle | March 27, 2007 2:05 PM
SO Gmail is down for 5 hours. I bet that their back-ups are far better than what you have on your laptop though...
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.
Posted by: Glen Barnes | March 27, 2007 2:09 PM
I've never had any issues with the gmail included in the google apps package.
http://www.google.com/a/
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
Posted by: Tim from bla.st | March 27, 2007 2:23 PM
If you'd only had your work "checklist" stored in Google Calendar, then you'd be ok ... since it'd be offline too! :-)
Posted by: Brittain | March 27, 2007 2:24 PM
There are many good things about GMail but given that it is still so new I wonder if it is wise to be so dependent on it.
Posted by: Adrian Keys | March 27, 2007 2:32 PM
@Richard, I can't accept either, but this is the fact unfortunately, Google still labels it with the famous, inspiring BETA badge.
Posted by: Emre Sokullu | March 27, 2007 2:33 PM
Adrian, you are right I shouldn't be so dependent on it. I will definitely re-implement my back-up procedures after I finally get Gmail back. I don't accept that it's "new" though, it turns 3 on 1 April...
Re Glen: "On a related note I guess having offline ability on these apps will mitigate the risk of downtime somewhat."
YES!!
Posted by: Richard MacManus | March 27, 2007 2:43 PM
This may sound odd, but I dusted-off Maxthon2 (I have no connection to the browser/company) and got into my Gmail account. Obviously, I'm going to clear my FF and MSIE caches later today.
Posted by: Chris Regan | March 27, 2007 2:47 PM
people, people...
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.
Posted by: dennis parrott | March 27, 2007 3:00 PM
"gosh-oh-golly-gee"??!
You raise some good points dennis. I now have my gmail back (yay!)....
Posted by: Richard MacManus | March 27, 2007 3:18 PM
@dennis: Then maybe it's time for Google fanboys to stop blaming Microsoft for blue screens of death.
Posted by: Emre Sokullu | March 27, 2007 3:19 PM
Why you guys complain ?
If you want free stuff, that's what you get !
Want better quality, then fork out your money !
Money solve everything !
If you love google, then prepare to be goo !
Free Stuff doesn't give you any free right to complain to google.
Posted by: WhyComplain | March 27, 2007 11:31 PM
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:
And here, now you have matterial to a new RWW article - "how to choose your tools". Make "read everything you agree on" on that list. If you rely on GMail, then you should be prepared for a scenario in which you stop having it (temporarily or defenitively). If you aren't, then you chose the wrong tool for the job.
WeBreakStuff's Fred wrote about the issues with service dependency in 2005, which you might want to read.
Posted by: Mind Booster Noori | March 28, 2007 3:59 AM
Free? All web services are free, they have a business model on it, don't hide behind this argument.
Posted by: Emre Sokullu | March 28, 2007 10:30 AM
I had the lease number of problems with Gmail compared to all the other major players (Hotmail, Live, YahooMail, etc).
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!
Posted by: John Phillips | April 5, 2007 6:42 PM