It's Down! The Day Google Stood Still (Updated)
We have seen our fair share of failures from web based products, but this morning, for a large number of users (at least in the U.S.), it looks like every Google service has been either wiped off the Internet or is running extremely slow for a large number of users. Even Google Search is only creeping along slowly right now, and YouTube, Google Reader, Blogger, Google Analytics, Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Apps are pretty much unavailable as well.
Typically, these outages have never lasted for long, but once again, this outage shows how dependent we have become on Google for so many of our daily tasks.
Final Update (12:30pm PST): Google just released an official explanation for this morning's outage. According to Google, about 14% of its customers were affected by this morning's problems, which it attributes to an "error in one of our systems [that] caused us to direct some of our web traffic through Asia, which created a traffic jam."
As of now, all of our attempts to contact any Google property are timing out, but we'll keep you posted once we find out more about this.
Update: Judging from the comments here and the conversations we are tracking on Twitter and OneRiot, it looks like these outages are somewhat localized, though we haven't seen any patterns evolve yet. It does seem, though, like the outages are mostly in the U.S., though we are also seeing some reports from European users while Google seems to be working just fine in most Asian countries.
Currently, this looks like a networking issue, as users on some ISPs are able to access all of Google's services while their neighbors are unable to connect to Google's servers.
There were some reports that this issue was specific to AT&T customers, but this author uses Verizon FiOS and experienced the same issues. There is a chance, though, that any traffic that was routed over AT&T's network was delayed or dropped, but we are still looking into this.
Update 2 (9:10am PST): Looks like our collective nightmare is coming to an end - more and more users now report that their services are back up and running again. Here in Portland, OR, the outage lasted for just over an hour, though Gmail is still only working intermittently.
Update 3 (9:50am PST): Google just contacted us with this statement, which, even as these statements go, says very little: "We're aware some users are having trouble accessing some Google services. We're looking into it, and we'll update everyone soon."
Update 4 (10:20am PST): According to Google's official Twitter account, the issue has now been resolved.
As many other sites use Google Analytics and/or Google's APIs, this outage does not just affect Google, but has also brought down a substantial number of third-party sites that rely on Google's services.
If Google is working for you, or if you are also experiencing outages, feel free to vent in our comments section, or use this as an opportunity to check out some alternative services like Yahoo, Live Search, or DuckDuckGo.
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No problems with any of Google's services for me in Florence, AL. Others here have problems though. I guess I'm just lucky.
I've been using Gmail and Google Reader (where I read this post) all morning long and haven't noticed any issues at all. I even went to Google Maps to see if it was sluggish and it seems to be running normally. I'm a Charter customer located near St. Louis, MO.
Everything seems to be fine here.
Everything is dead on my end! Even my Google AdSense ads are not showing on my blog anymore!
I am currently using Yahoo to search. Wow. Anyway, guess it's good there are alternatives, otherwise we would be screwed.
Just read this article on Google Reader in Rexburg, ID.
I'm in India and all Google properties are working fine from here as of now.
I live in Costa Rica and for me gmail service has been down for at least 10 mins...
It's working here in the UK.
I'm not having any issues with any of my Google services. This includes my Google proper account, as well as my Google Apps FYD account. Located just outside of Portland, Oregon.
No issues here in Chicago suburbs.
SB
I registered for AdSense last night, and I've gotten over 40 of the "account approval" emails. About 20 of them with the same timestamp.
Someone did an oopsie.
In California, every google service is NOT running from gmail to simple google search. Frustrating!
Works fine for me in Albany. Only an NYC issue perhaps?
Google is taking over 5 minutes to load a single search. I thought it was my computer at first but then I tried Yahoo! and there was nothing wrong. I think this is the first time I have ever had an issue performance wise with Google
google down in denver, co. frustrated!
I'm in VA and google search and gmail has been down for almost an hour. Color me Aggravated.
All google services are down for me here in Boston. Ugh.
Everything is down for me in Valley Forge, PA.
Google is working for me except that my Google Voice automatically goes to voicemail.
Everything Google-related is pretty much down for me. I can get to some of the sign in screens by waiting five minutes for things to load, but if I try to sign in, it just times out.
We're locked down pretty tight at my work, as to what we can access online, and Google is pretty much my lifeline to non-work things.
I'm in Phoenix, AZ.
Boston is out
We have internet through several ISP's in the UK and some are working while others are down.
All Google related sites are down or extremly slow in Lincoln, NE Downtown, but south Lincoln is having no issues.
All Google products down. Nothing, nada.
--J-ville, FL
I'm a Scot in Hungary and Google Maps is kinda down for me. The search works but the map images are missing. Man, this sucks.
I'm in Malaysia and its working here.
not working for me in nyc
We are no Google problems in SE Georgia. Go figure.
We're dead in Atlanta.
aargh. here in miami beach, google and gmail have been down for me for about an hour. :(
Google is down in Lumberton, NJ
Portland, OR. Down.
Also in Denver, CO - not working for me.
All Google servers were down in Denver, Mississippi, and parts of Texas. They are sort of back now, but slow and useless. Sites that use Google services also hung when the browser tried to load the services (including ads, googleapi.com, and analytics). I rely on Google for research and this has brought my work this morning to a grinding halt. 60% of the sites I try to view after doing an AltaVista search don't load.
People working in Google's PR department probably should plan on a bit of overtime :-).
Unlike #15 (above), All google services are working fine here in Denver.
Working fine here in Yorkshire, UK.
google works fine for me, I;m in china.
Google is back up in Lumberton, NJ
Boston is back
San Diego, CA down too...
Bahamas is up, seems to be focused on the US with DC and VA for sure.
No problems here in Ft. Lauderdale Florida... used Google News search to find this blog after seeing some tweets about it being down
Google would not load this morning and is moving VERY slow right now. Also, can not load youtube right now. I am in St. Paul, Minnesota.
indiana is down!! so frustrating bc i need it for work!!
NYC here and all works well..
Thanks for all the reports folks! Keep'em coming! Still trying to puzzle together a pattern here...
All Google services Very slow in Chicago
All Google services are down for us since ca. 70 minutes here (Berlin, Germany).
In birmingham off an oc12 Most gapps aren't loading search is iffy
6 316 ms 323 ms * 209.85.255.198
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * 315 ms * 74.125.67.100
11 * 316 ms 318 ms 74.125.67.100
I'm in St. Louis and it's painfully s-l-o-w.
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