Ouch. GMail is down, giving 502 server errors to users around the world. It’s somewhat reassuring to log onto Twitter and find lots of friends griping about it as well.
As much as I’d like to rant about Google’s incompetence and the neccesity of perpetually accessible email… I’ve run email servers before, and I have absolutely no interest in running one again. Yes, it makes me vaguely uneasy that my email’s on a large corporation’s servers. But I’m far less nervous than if I were still running mail on my own box, trying to filter out spam, block DDOS attacks, etc.
The helpful folks on this Google group suggest that you may be able to access your mail via the AJAX-free gmail interface. I find that I’m able to read messages through it, though not send new mail.
Oddly, I’ve only received four messages in the past 90 minutes, which is roughly the time I’ve not been able to access GMail. It makes me wonder just how many of the people I regularly correspond with are also using GMail… (All of Global Voices, for instance.)
Hello Ethan,
long been a fan of your writing and perceptive analysis of development.
Though this might interest you http://www.newstatesman.com/africa/2008/08/kenya-camp-peter-nakuru-during
These stories form Kenya where only the voices of those affected are heard … no journalists voice informaing us what’s going on.
all the best
Benjamin
In a nod to Seth Godin-like customer service and transparency, Google posted an apology and explanation on their Gmail blog:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/we-feel-your-pain-and-were-sorry.html
Nice to see that “Don’t be Evil” still resonates in Mountain View.
Today, 15th Aug in Korean time, gmail is down again at least for my account for at least 2 hours. It might have been longer than this for more people, but this is as far as I know and as far as I’ve tried from this morning.
I think google should do something serious about this, unless they want to build a new reputation simiar to the ‘bluescreen of Microsoft’.
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