More Gmail fail: Contact lists break, angering millions anew
Filed under: Company News, Technology, Google , Microsoft
On the heels of a recent massive outage that took down Gmail access globally for several hours, Google (GOOG) suffered another black eye, when the contacts-management portion of its Internet email program went down for several hours on Thursday. Millions of users (including me) were greeted with the message "contacts temporary unavailable" when they accessed their accounts. It remains unclear how widespread the outage is; Google has not issued any word on the nature or status of its problems, beyond an icon notification of problems in the Google Apps Status Dashboard.Losing access to contacts also means losing access to the auto-complete feature of Gmail, which makes it all but impossible to send emails: no one memorizes many contacts' email addresses these days, precisely due to the prevalence and utility of auto-complete features.
While the majority of Gmail users do not pay for the service, the Mountain View, California-based search giant has been pushing hard to sign up large corporate, government, and academic customers to use Gmail, and its other online applications, to replace Microsoft's (MSFT) pricey Office suite. As I've pointed out, widespread outages of Gmail do not bode well for Google's efforts to take a piece of Microsoft's Office pie.
The last big outage happened in the middle of the horrific wildfires in Los Angeles this month -- and right on the heels of a decision by the City of Los Angeles to adopt Gmail and Gchat as its primary communications tools. Sources at the Los Angeles Fire Department's union expressed grave misgivings about using Gmail, in light of the failures during a critical time. Granted, during that outage, Gmail was accessible via the iGoogle desktop widget -- but that's not terribly helpful for anyone hoping to access Gmail on a mobile phone.
With regard to the bottom line, Google has managed recently to get some traction on selling its Apps Suite to big customers, lining up the likes of Motorola's handset division as clients. But no one likes it when their email goes down for hours, and that rarely happens at large corporations running redundant Microsoft Exchange servers for email. For its part, Google has flawlessly managed a far bigger IT task -- namely, keeping Google's search engine up and running for years without a glitch.
Oh, and for those who say you get what you pay for with a free email service: a little reminder that all those ads served up against Gmail accounts make Google real money. Users are selling access to Google in exchange for free email and other features. That's the deal, and it's not a bad one for Google. So in light of all this, perhaps it's time to take this email thing a little more seriously, Googlers.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-24-2009 @ 2:18PM
larry said...
GOOG should buy Akamai . Its cheap and would solve an awful lot of GOOG s technical problem here.
Reply
9-24-2009 @ 2:26PM
R said...
"While the majority of Gmaii users do not pay for the service,"
Please fix! :)
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9-24-2009 @ 2:42PM
boatchat said...
Oh the sky is falling. Learn to take your index finger and dial a phone number. I remember when we used to talk on the phone..........geeez
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9-26-2009 @ 9:38PM
Brian Humphrey said...
It should be noted that the Los Angeles Fire Department UNION (emphasis added) not the Department is the entity commenting on the possible use of Google e-mail. I am not aware of any statement from our agency on the matter.
Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,
Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Information Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department
Reply
9-24-2009 @ 6:26PM
Red said...
Every website breaks down or has problems. Geeeesh, it is bound to happen on all websites at one time or another. People get upset at the stupidest things! There are other ways to communicate also. Try it, you might like having a conversation with someone or even write a letter to someone. It won't kill you!
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9-24-2009 @ 6:11PM
salome said...
one of their technical problems are billing you for nonexisting accounts,via your phone bill--clever bastards,eh ?
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9-24-2009 @ 7:50PM
Rick said...
What is GMAIL?!
9-24-2009 @ 6:24PM
bob said...
crap happens in the electronics business. this is something you have to live with
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9-24-2009 @ 7:29PM
It's Not Only G-Mail said...
Ironically, my AOL service ceased to function while I was reading the article, and I could not go back online with AOL for about 20 minutes. Pardon my grammar, but there ain't nobody out there doing their jobs any more. Everybody is relying on some "computer" that been programmed by somebody who ain't doing their job, either. Nobody takes personal responsibility for anything, and everybody blames somebody else, or blames the computer. Welcome to the 21st Century. I can hardly wait 'til December 21, 2012.
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9-25-2009 @ 12:39AM
Tim said...
So you know millions were angered how? Did they all email you in anger so you would write a bad article to rip on a free service? Please do not submit your attempt at journalism to anyone again. poorly written and full of holes. EVERY email service has gone through the same difficulties and that includes the ones that cost money. You are just pissed that you didn't believe in google from the beginning and didn't buy any shares. Go back to your cave.
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9-25-2009 @ 4:41AM
b said...
I receive more Spam garbage from gmail than any other service. Yeah, I guess it's not their fault. I actually missed the Spam during the down period.
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9-25-2009 @ 6:14AM
Mikey the Nail said...
Google is poised for the inevitable fall from grace awating the top dog of every modern corporate food chain. They get so big that their sheer girth is simply unsustainable. The Fat Cats open their golden parachutes while the workers plummet to the ground, and the little people wind up footing the bill.
This is why it is time now for GOVERNMENT REGULATION of giant corporations, in order to save them from their own folly.
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