this guy complained about google didn’t explain the problem.fist of all,i just read the promblem posted by google explaining what had happened…so,how can he say that? second,didn’t have a problem with my mail,just the contact list(and still have problem with it,says:still loading)written by:justin capasso

Are you blind?

“Many of you had trouble accessing Gmail for a couple of hours this afternoon, and we’re really sorry. The issue was caused by a temporary outage in our contacts system that was preventing Gmail from loading properly. Everything should be back to normal by the time you read this.”

They didnt go into detail about it, I think that is what he is talking about. But I think it is prudent to not go into too much detail because if it was an attack, they dont want to give the person any publicity, and there is too much risk in security if they say too much. Or, it could just be too complicated

chill people. no need to get so upset and all.

the problem’s solved, and that’s that.

just passing by.

I have juuust enough of a life whereas I don’t need to worry about whether my email account works or not…..

Sharon, I see quite well, thank you for the insult. try to avoid making fun of disabilities in the future.

My point was as Anna said. They mention that the issue lies within the contact list system, but they do not mention whether or not it is an issue that could potentially resurface. It is fixed for now; but is it something that Gmail users need to worry about in the future?

Quit griping. They apologized and fixed the problem. If it would have been an issue about security to your account, I believe they would have said something about it. Bla bla bla

Yes, worry worry worry! You can never worry enough!

If we all sit around and worry about some small problem that might make Gmail not load for 3 hours out of the year, then maybe we can keep it from happening!!

Of course, then there might be some other problem that happens, and then we would have to start worrying about that one!

sheesh

Given that Google has said they are taking steps to find out exactly why the problem happened and are going to take measures to see to it that it doesn’t happen again, I think that is plenty of a resolution.

The fact they even issued an apology amazes me, one site was down for 27 hours between yesterday and today, and we didn’t get so much as an update as to when it would be back up, let alone what was wrong in the first place.

I say blow some steam on something else, Google’s got this one covered.

I dont normally read blogs like this, after reading Justin’s comments I think I will go back to my old habits. If email goes down I guess I will have to go 20th Century and actually speak to someone!

I feel as though the content is well-written, although it seems to lack real substance. But all in all a very clever way to attract folks to your blog and spark some conversation.

Besides, we’re only “customers” insofar as the fact that we make use of Google’s services - Gmail is FREE after all.

so Justin, do you pay for Google Apps Premium, or are you utilizing a free service like the rest of the majority of GMail users?

I don’t really see where you have grounds to complain or worry about a free service…

if you are paying for Apps Premium, call customer service and demand they pro-rate three hours off your bill.

Consider Gmail is for the most part a free service provided by Google and I hardly seen it go down before, we should not complain. It is completely standard for companies not to disclose too much information and be vague about what happened in outages such as these for legal and security reasons. I have other mail accounts, including yahoo, which go down and we do not get an acknowledgement of the issue. While it was a headache to not have email for a couple hours and yes it does impact those out there who use it extensively for work/personal email, I would say let it go. It doesn’t happen often and it is fixed. I rather not know what exactly happened either, just that it has been resolved within a reasonable amount of time.

I’d advise a quick visit to lifehacker if you’re really worried about your gmail service. They had two solutions that caught my eye. One was using Thunderbird and POP to keep a copy of your mail on your own computer.

The other was really ingenius. Basically you set up a private Google group, that all your emails forward to. As long as you’re the only one with access, all your mail will show up there, so you’ll have a bit of a repository built up in no time.

As a free gmail user who did lose some data (and nerve-endings) temporarily yesterday, I don’t agree that we have no right to complain. Since free-users make up the vast majority, our experience is the one that shapes the image of gmail as a product. How can we honestly recommend it as an alternative if we have misgivings? At least google were relatively honest and quick to fix the problem.

@ Justin: I’m not sure if I agree with you 100% though. Google probably didn’t need to reveal the exact nature of the problem. It is after all, their product. And it’s a competitive market too. If we can depend on them to acknowledge the issue and pledge to fix it, then I think it says a lot about how people view the company. Would you believe Redmond if they had the same problem with hotmail/live?

Maybe this is a wakeup call for Google. Today Google is a great search engines and a massive advertising machine. The world has rewarded Google with an immense market cap. But when you really look at Google you see an awful lot of mediocrity. GMail is a beta app - like a lot of Google apps, it never leaves the beta stage. That right there demonstrates Google’s confidence in the their apps and their commitment to making these apps world class. Their commitment just isn’t there. This isn’t the only time Google has had a problem - there are lots of glitches in Google software - repeatedly, though seldom of this magnitude. Often they are clearly premature software releases that come from inadequate testing - something a small garage operation might do. I really think that Google has to grow up as a software company now.

I think it is time that Google stopped producing lots of lots of cool sample apps and instead invested in building an environment worthy of their name and valuation.

I think I have to respectfully disagree. There are a number of well-established, “grown-up” companies out there that still have bugs in their products (Microsoft is a popular example), and I don’t think that glitches are a good indicator of how appropriate a company’s approach to software development is or their commitment to making their products outstanding. I actually like the approach that Google uses because of the interesting new features that constantly appear, and I find that their track record with regard to bugs is absolutely stellar. All the testing in the world won’t find all the bugs in a product (as I have woefully experienced myself), and I am pretty confident that Google does test fairly thoroughly. As for the beta issue…well, I believe that shows more of an attitude of never being done improving their products than one of lack of confidence. But I suppose that’s a matter of individual perception.

Just for the record, Gmail is *not* free. Google makes money from the service, as customers click through on ads. Since the email user is critical to Google’s revenue, they do owe them an explanation, and reassurance that this will be rare. Otherwise, people will look elsewhere for email, or at least look for backup solutions in case the next problem is worse.

I have a related problem with Google Groups. Many groups are missing since two days ago - including 4 that I manage, To add insult to injury, my google email address has been blocked as well, so I could not even send in a message to the help page until I set up a new google email address. I have lost all of my google group contacts as a result. There is no mention on the google help page that they are even addressing this problem. I know it is bigger than my problem, because some of google’s own groups that they have set up to discuss help issues, are not working and do not exist anymore either. They are being totally silent about this matter.

[...] because many of the Google users are very technically savvy, and know when they’re being given a line, or something else is being used as an [...]

for those wondering WHY the system had problems–WHO CARES!! Are you their systems admins or engineers responsible for managing the system–no? Then stop asking why something happened…I get that at my office as well..end-users asking for the technical details they neither care about nor understand so I just give them some fluff answer so they go away. I, as an IT person, have no desire to explain my job to someone who doesn’t work in this field so I think if Google says it’s fixed…end of story.

like one writer said…chill people…it’s email (and FREE for many of us)–your lives won’t end if it stops working..

Peace!

follow-up to the person who said it is NOT free…they don’t OWE anyone anything…who forced you to sign up? Secondly, WHY do they OWE you a technical explanation full of detail? Just because you have an email account…get real…

Frankly, I’d rather Google engineers spend their time maintaining and enhancing their systems (and addressing the occasional glitches) than writing dissertations about how email works and all the low-level processes that are having issues…

later..

To me it seems like this has gotten out of hand. I do not see people asking Microsoft why they have to update windows all the time and the technical details about it. Google said it was an “temporary outage in our contacts system”. In my honest opinion it could of just been a downed database or connection something probably went down that they thought would not so the whole system failed.

Nothing is perfect. Also if you think you don’t have to back up your data well then you must of missed computers 101 or something because that was one of the first things I was ever taught when I started using a computer.