Widespread Google outages rattle users
Editor's note: Check CNET News' separate story for details about what caused the outage for Google and others.
Google tweeted at about 10:20 a.m. PDT its problems are fixed.
(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)Many people found Google's search site was extremely slow or inaccessible Thursday, and other reports pointed to troubles with other properties including YouTube, Gmail, Google Analytics, Google Maps, Google Docs, AdSense, and Blogger.
Judging by a Twitter search for #googlefail, the problem was international in scope, though it wasn't immediately clear how universal the problems were. Google didn't immediately comment for this story, though it did confirm an earlier Google News outage that lasted about three and a half hours.
Google is central to the online lives--and livelihood--of many, and an outage shows exactly how central it's become--and not just through its primary business, search.
"The Internet dies without Google. Can't get to my bank Web site because it's waiting on 'google-analytics.com.' This is made of lame," said Twitter user Tadiera.
Are you having problems? Tell us what's not working and where you live in the comment section below.
Updated 9:30 a.m. PDT: Many readers are reporting that service is returning to normal, at least on some parts of the East Coast. Please continue to let us know if you are experiencing problems, or how long the outage lasted for you if things have settled down.
Google representatives have still not returned calls and e-mails requesting comment on exactly what happened this morning. The company has confirmed, however, that Gmail suffered what it called "a problem with Google Mail affecting a small subset of users." Google said it hoped to update that status by 10 a.m. PDT.
This is all that a usually instant search for 'Bruins' showed after 10 seconds. Click to enlarge.
(Credit: Screenshot by Zoe Slocum/CNET)Updated 9:40 a.m. PDT: Google released the following statement: "We're aware some users are having trouble accessing some Google services. We're looking into it, and we'll update everyone soon." Google also sounded the all-clear whistle for Gmail: "The problem with Google Mail should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support."
Meanwhile, outages have been reported to us all over the world, including California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Florida, New York, Washington, Illinois, Idaho, Indiana, Arizona, Oklahoma, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, the United Kingdom, Dominican Republic, and Malaysia.
Keynote's Internet Health report is showing some interesting data this morning as well. Two network routes involving NTT, a Japanese telecommunications giant, are showing significant packet loss on connections to Qwest and Verizon. We're trying to get more information and an explanation from Keynote representatives.
Updated 9:50 a.m. PDT: Our colleague Larry Dignan over at ZDNet notes this report from Just Ping, backing up other reports of significant packet loss on the Internet today.
A Just Ping report involving Google.com shows packet loss around the world Thursday.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)Updated 12:25 p.m. PDT: Google gave a brief explanation of the problem on its main blog:
Imagine if you were trying to fly from New York to San Francisco, but your plane was routed through an airport in Asia. And a bunch of other planes were sent that way too, so your flight was backed up and your journey took much longer than expected. That's basically what happened to some of our users today for about an hour, starting at 7:48 am Pacific time.
An error in one of our systems caused us to direct some of our web traffic through Asia, which created a traffic jam. As a result, about 14% of our users experienced slow services or even interruptions. We've been working hard to make our services ultrafast and "always on," so it's especially embarrassing when a glitch like this one happens. We're very sorry that it happened, and you can be sure that we'll be working even harder to make sure that a similar problem won't happen again. All planes are back on schedule now.
Thanks
Bill Gates
I use Firefox with NoScript and forbid Google Analytics all the time when it IS working, not just temporarily. It doesn't appear to interfere with anything I need to do, and the less they know about my activities the happier I am. It's none of their business anyway.
(In greater Washington DC area)
One employee (suspected Taliban or Al Qaeda) was particularly restless and some water got splashed on a few routers, gateways and patch panels. Nothing to worry about. It was all dried up in 3-4 hours and that suspect hasn't been seen since... probably never to be heard from again.
It was VERY broad in scope:
google-syndication.com
google-analytics.com
googleapis.com -> critical for mashups or using Google Ajax code repository.
Oddly, Lynx (a command line text-only Linux browser) worked just fine - although it did say "Bad HTML..." error, it was able to piece the packets together into a coherent text-only webpage for google.com and blogspot.com
Considering all of Google's redundancies, distributed data centers, broad scope of the fail, I look forward to Google's statement.
It was a bit terrifying and I wonder what/when Google will comment - now that it is fixed.
This isn't the first time I have been held up waiting for google-analytics.com. I think I'll just add it to my hosts file.
"Check back here any time to view the current status of the services listed below. For all other information or to report a problem, please visit the Google Apps Help Centers."
Ironically during the outage, the "Help Center" was down, too.
- by jlindros May 14, 2009 9:47 AM PDT
- I'm on the east coast and didn't see the outtage until about an hour ago. Gmail, google finance, youtube, calendar, and other programs were gonzo for me. However, everything just came back up and running at full capacity.
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