Google's Gmail suffers another disruption

Computerworld - Just two days after Google News crashed, Google Inc.'s e-mail service, Gmail, suffered a disruption.

Starting sometime before 11 a.m. EDT today, Gmail stumbled and became unavailable to some users. As of 11:45 a.m., the problem persisted.

Google said in a note in its Google Apps Help Center shortly after 11 a.m. that it was aware of the problem and working to fix it. At 11:29 a.m., the company posted an update that said the hosted e-mail application had been restored for some users and that a full resolution was expected by 12:30.

Frustrated Gmail users quickly took to Twitter to voice their frustrations and look for information. One user wrote, "Gmail More and More Like Late '90s Era Hotmail ... So much for those Gmail reliability." Others wrote, "OMG is gmail still down?!!" and "GMail CEO pls take note. I wanna sleep. Make sure when I wake up, GMail back to normal. Else I'll use Hotmail."

The Gmail problem comes on the heels of an hour-and-a-half Google News glitch Tuesday. Google did not say what caused the crash or how engineers got the news aggregation site working again.

Earlier this month, Gmail experienced a day of intermittent disruptions, followed by a second day during which users experienced multiple delays and outages with the e-mail service. Users of Gmail and other Google applications also endured well-publicized service crashes in both February and May.

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