Comments on: Widespread Google outages rattle users

CNET readers and Twitter users are reporting problems with many Google services, notably search. Google says it fixed the problem and acknowledged responsibility.

[Maccess]

well, whoever designs websites to wait on other websites just multiplied their failure modes.

[gggg sssss]

Fools I say.

[darren_kopp]

finally, someone covered this. i was beginning to think news sites were worthless.

[WriterRen]

Google is out here ... can't access search ... can't access Reader ... can't access Trending Topics on Twitter, either. I think Google needs a brother or sister so it's not carrying the weight of the Internets alone.

[darren_kopp]

I think google needs to re-evaluate their architecture. Sure, their stuff scales awesome, but how can it be that when something goes wrong, EVERYTHING goes down? interested into knowing what actually happened.

[darren_kopp]

ahahaha, right as people start reporting about googles downtime, everything just came back up for me.

[joemd04]

All my google services went out, but have now returned. Felt like an orphan for a while...Funny how I've become so used to google that I feel weird using sites like yahoo to search for things even though they work pretty much the same.

[edtechlab]

Gmail went down over an hour in my part of Chicago. What is up?

[gggg sssss]

its free right? you get what you pay for it.

[seller11]

22207 (DC area). Google search, news and email out here for at least an hour this morning, ranging from totally inaccessible to very, very slow. Finally back up around noon EDT.

[xtremetoonz]

Appears the issue was in Atlanta with Level3 but has cleared up now. Just from my perspective.

To all the people complaining about Google Analytics holding up their favorite websites, do yourselves a favor and run Firefox, install NoScript, and temporarily block GA (in addition to any other Google service). Problem solved.

[jh7468]

Please disregard this message. There is no browser named Firefox, and it doesn't work anyway. Just keep using Internet Explorer as instructed. And switch to MSN email, too. This way we'll all be okay.

Thanks
Bill Gates

[davidows]

Sorry, Bill, but I agree the poster above you!

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.

[gggg sssss]

@ davidows well it IS trhier business. You are sucking back their content without paying for it, so dont compain if they want to know who you are. Whoever THEY are.

[peterwhite]

At first I just kept putting off my searches partially because I assumed it was a company extranet outage, then I realized the local newspaper, MSN, etc were all functioning. I noticed a couple of changes to some of the other search tools that helped localize my queries (which happened to match my particular need this AM) and now I will give them a try from time to time.

[ashish_12]

None of the sites - Search, Gmail, Maps, Orkut, Reader were working till just a few minutes ago. Now they are back up.

(In greater Washington DC area)

[thelemurking]

wow, someone else who knows what Orkut is :) I feel so alone on Orkut... I love it but none of my friends are willing to even give it a try.

[Cosmo8U]

I just thought it was Dick Cheney up to his old tricks again. I was without e-mail and Google search for about 3 hours. Nampa, ID

[thelemurking]

I think you might be on to something, but to be safe, you might want to avoid going on any bird or duck hunts any time soon.

[davidows]

Nah, Dick Cheney and his boys were just having some fun in a few of the wiring closets at Google. Just some harmless waterboarding of paranoid Google employees, who refused to answer a few personal questions. Anyone not wearing a turban and without a full beard was not bothered in the least.

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.

[shortpaw49]

Had similar experience Thursday evening; unable to log in to Google or any Google accts for appx 2hrs here in St. Paul, MN. I would have thought there would have been some kind of official acknowledgment or explanation. Glad to see I wasn't alone. (Considering my roommate, sitting at her computer eight feet away, was experiencing no difficulty.)

[oh4real]

From Austin TX

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.

[backslashtech]

Yep, having probs with all Google services here... although it does seem to have subsided a bit in the past hour or so.

[cp256]

I thought Obama's blackberry got hacked and redirected the whole internet through China's censorship filters...

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.

Out in Austin, TX

[TripleRLtd]

The story uses google appcenter status report:

"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.

[gggg sssss]

And you belive those cable internet people who say while you are on hold "Check our website to help solv eyour problems"??

[jlindros]

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.