Haven't experienced any outages yet (in Melbourne, Oz). I went to full GMail about two years ago and recently went to Calendar too. I use the syncing function which is FANTASTIC. The last week I've started testing Google Docs and haved been doing parallel work (GDocs, Open Office, MS Office) on a 17 page document. GDocs has nowhere near as much funtionality as Open Office (my preferred suite) or MS Office, but, I doubt many users use as many functions as I do. So far, I'd recommend GDocs to the majority of my clients for 'most' of their staff. If the cloud sometimes gets a bit thin, working off line really doesn't hold me up (I showed a tech guru the whole concept last week and he's hooked).
Coralie
· 6 months ago
'Could it be that Gmail users are simply better connected online, and have more outlets through which to vent their frustrations?'
I like that last statement. It would be very interesting to compare the demographic of Gmail users compared to that of, dare I say it, AOL users. Although maybe a slightly more fair comparison would be Gmail and Hotmail.
Bob Chapman
· 6 months ago
I was commenting upon the wisdom of depending on the cloud on my blog in March. So I don't repeat myself,
I think the bigger reason that there's outcry with a G-Mail outage is that if it goes down, you're totally cut off. At least when my exchange server goes down (which is definitely less often than gmail, but that's just me) I still have access to all my old e-mail via Outlook. When gmail is down, you're totally SOL.
-Alex
Tyler Hayes
· 3 months ago
Alex, try enabling Google Gears, which allows you to use the "Gmail Offline" feature. This syncs all your emails (not including attachments) to your computer, just like Outlook would. You can still compose emails that will then send when you re-connect to the Internet as well.
techsupport
· 6 months ago
I like that last statement. It would be very interesting to compare the demographic of Gmail users compared to that of, dare I say it, AOL users. Although maybe a slightly more fair comparison would be Gmail and Hotmail.
mSites
· 6 months ago
I am missing a bunch of emails from this week. I just didn't receive them. Despite multiple people telling me they have sent emails i haven't received some. Not good! Not Happy!
Avalon
· 6 months ago
no problems here either, and i've been flipping between my three different accounts all night
Joddie
· 6 months ago
Nothing happen in Indonesia (specially Bali)
Todd Cullen
· 6 months ago
Oh com'on when someone's Exchange server goes down, most often its the company's sysadmin that messed something up. Are you really going to jump on twitter and bash your company's IT guy in public? You could but good luck with that next software update that crashes your system. A company or its employee's typically don't air their dirty laundry like that.
But with Google, its a third party that has no real "face". Swing away.
sfharper
· 6 months ago
Sorry to hear it, so useful :) Sheri
Gregory Talon
· 6 months ago
"Why, then, the outcry whenever Gmail is down? Could it be that Gmail users are simply better connected online, and have more outlets through which to vent their frustrations?"
It's not about comparing Gmail with Outlook but with other webmails and especially the most popular one: Yahoo! Mail. Gmail users are just like the others on the basics, they want to check their mail when they need. The problem is just that Gmail is not reliable anymore and fails to deliver the basic value too often now.
k8
· 6 months ago
owh..but when i check my gmail, my account not really slow connection. Maybe it depends on each country though..
Anita Hunt
· 6 months ago
Is the frequency of Gmail issues increasing, while socnet use overtakes email? http://is.gd/Cj5k
Bike Gamer
· 6 months ago
I'm having no problem with gmail.
Andrew
· 6 months ago
I think that Gmail is not working for technical reasons...in a few days it works
Chuck
· 6 months ago
For those that have enterprise apps you can get money back from the SLA. I am wondering if people that bought storage can get the same.
pj
· 6 months ago
I dont think gmail user are more connected online then others. It just that if they can´t connect, they don´t get access to their mailbox. Maybe "offline" (labs) will solve this...
Steve
· 6 months ago
It seems that this downtime was for a good reason- looks like they finally fixed the problem of images automaticaly showing in email. It's taken them a month to resolve which was pretty bad.
Pixel Studio Works™
· 6 months ago
Cool!
I'm having no problem with gmail.
In India.
Susan Penter
· 6 months ago
I think G-mail users are simply the most active people on the web and therefore we're the worst hit when we can't access either our mail or our calendar or our reads. Plus we rely so heavily on Google and perhaps have unrealistic expectations that we will never be let down.
swag
· 6 months ago
Oh the humanity.
Bob Chapman
· 6 months ago
I use full Outlook at home. I don't use Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, or any other variant.
The only time I can't get to my e-mail is when the ADSL line is down, which now is rare. I am able to create e-mail in several programs in addition to Outlook, depending how "fancy" I want it to look when opened. I'm able to link thumbnails to full images on my domain in order to save e-mail download time.
My BlackBerry is able to access all my e-mail when it is still on the server (don't leave home and forget to close Outlook). I am able to respond to anyone using my thumbs.
I don't get why anyone would want to depend on the cloud.
kwwphoto
· 6 months ago
Outlook is terribly slow, and especially painful on older computers--it takes several minutes just to open the program, let alone download a day's worth of email. More than that, Outlook is limited to one computer--but I have a home desktop, home laptop, work laptop, etc. and there's no way to sync different Outlook installations and folders (what a nightmare that would be!)
I can access the cloud anywhere, from most devices no matter the level of portability. There's no need to sync since I'm working from the same system.
I don't get why anyone would NOT use the cloud to make lives easier.
Sue Todd
· 6 months ago
Oh but you can use Outlook on more than one machine and access the same outlook files!
I use it on my desktop and laptop and they synchronise via exchange. I do use Gmail but ...... I like to have my own data on the whole and I like to be able to get at it all the time. I may be a dinosaur though! But I'm with Bob on this one I think.
I've been looking at the cloud a lot more recently and can see benefits but it just takes some down time and I don't much like being that disconnected from my email files.
Tyler Hayes
· 3 months ago
Every option mentioned so far is available in both Gmail and Outlook. They really aren't that dissimilar, many of the same most-used features are just set to different defaults.
Either way, I think we've all learned by this point that the phrase "different strokes for different folks" applies well here. While I'm too far away from Outlook at this point, I have to imagine that there are some advantages to it. That said, it is a noticeable trend that more start-ups and Generation X/Y (and some Boomers) are giving the cloud a shot, and sticking with it. As the world becomes more flat, portability becomes more of an issue. As a business owner myself, I can say that I wouldn't mind using Exchange/Outlook, but I'd rather use a cloud service because there have been many times I've found myself around the world without my laptop needing to check email, reference old emails, etc.
Case in point: any student that studies abroad.
PS - On a related note, I just Googled a bit of "Outlook vs. Gmail" and it seems Gmail is universally the winner. What are some distinct, true advantages anyone can think of for a person/business to use Exchange/Outlook over Google Apps?
the Jim Gaudet
· 6 months ago
That could be and is a good point. The thing is, and I have no stats at all just my personal xp, I cannot remember gmail going down as much as it has in the last 12 months. I have no idea why, but I think we are too used to gmail always working and when it doesn't, watch out. WE NEED OUR EMAIL..
I have learned the best way to deal with "downtime" is to turn it into uptime. For example; when gmail is down and you KNOW it will be back up, relax in this moment. Take a break, stand up. Breathe, step away from your computer. Not having your email for 15 minutes won't be that bad...
Marc Handelman
· 6 months ago
FYI: This issue affected company hosted mail at Google as well. My company included. While it is a relatively trivial matter to modify our own DNS records and keep the mail flowing, why should we utilize our own internal private mail servers when paying good money for the service? Furthermore, no offers of recompense are forthcoming from Google [after all, there is a quantifiable cost to this downtime]. Fundamental issues of uptime, at the search giant are apparently unresolved. Cloud computing mission critical applications are apparently not ready for primetime.
Tyler Hayes
· 3 months ago
If significant recompense can be proven, then sue Google. There's plenty of precedent for those types of lawsuits.
But may I suggest you first ask yourself: would you sue your IT technician when this happened? Would you dock his pay?
On a more philosophical level, what would you say is decent uptime? 100% (impossible)? 99.99%? 99.7%?
vivek
· 6 months ago
No problemo here in rajasthan [india] :)
Eugen
· 6 months ago
I just love Gmail, it is far superior to any of the other mail providers out there. Fast and neat, it's probably the best invention since Google.
Gmail is down for the last 30 min for me, 23-6-09 14:30 GMT +2
Do you know if this is the situation for many users?
Eli
Ashley Kirk
· 3 months ago
gmail is down now for me!
saamimatloob
· 3 months ago
damn its down again..... wtf \
JoeMescher
· 3 months ago
Gmail Outages = Reason for Corporate Resistance to Google Powering their Email Solution
Richard
· 3 months ago
Gmail has been down for about an hour here in Ohio...It just quit. I had just been on it. I've never had a problem before today...
Tyler Hayes
· 3 months ago
Got a 502 Server Error here, it's been flaky for a few hours but at least Google Gears worked to keep sync my old email. As soon as I reloaded the window, it won't even let me use that anymore. I'm even using Chrome!
All Comments
I like that last statement. It would be very interesting to compare the demographic of Gmail users compared to that of, dare I say it, AOL users. Although maybe a slightly more fair comparison would be Gmail and Hotmail.
http://blog.rrchapman.us/2009/03/but-what-if-cl...
-Alex
But with Google, its a third party that has no real "face". Swing away.
It's not about comparing Gmail with Outlook but with other webmails and especially the most popular one: Yahoo! Mail. Gmail users are just like the others on the basics, they want to check their mail when they need. The problem is just that Gmail is not reliable anymore and fails to deliver the basic value too often now.
I'm having no problem with gmail.
In India.
The only time I can't get to my e-mail is when the ADSL line is down, which now is rare. I am able to create e-mail in several programs in addition to Outlook, depending how "fancy" I want it to look when opened. I'm able to link thumbnails to full images on my domain in order to save e-mail download time.
My BlackBerry is able to access all my e-mail when it is still on the server (don't leave home and forget to close Outlook). I am able to respond to anyone using my thumbs.
I don't get why anyone would want to depend on the cloud.
I can access the cloud anywhere, from most devices no matter the level of portability. There's no need to sync since I'm working from the same system.
I don't get why anyone would NOT use the cloud to make lives easier.
I use it on my desktop and laptop and they synchronise via exchange. I do use Gmail but ...... I like to have my own data on the whole and I like to be able to get at it all the time. I may be a dinosaur though! But I'm with Bob on this one I think.
I've been looking at the cloud a lot more recently and can see benefits but it just takes some down time and I don't much like being that disconnected from my email files.
Either way, I think we've all learned by this point that the phrase "different strokes for different folks" applies well here. While I'm too far away from Outlook at this point, I have to imagine that there are some advantages to it. That said, it is a noticeable trend that more start-ups and Generation X/Y (and some Boomers) are giving the cloud a shot, and sticking with it. As the world becomes more flat, portability becomes more of an issue. As a business owner myself, I can say that I wouldn't mind using Exchange/Outlook, but I'd rather use a cloud service because there have been many times I've found myself around the world without my laptop needing to check email, reference old emails, etc.
Case in point: any student that studies abroad.
PS - On a related note, I just Googled a bit of "Outlook vs. Gmail" and it seems Gmail is universally the winner. What are some distinct, true advantages anyone can think of for a person/business to use Exchange/Outlook over Google Apps?
I have learned the best way to deal with "downtime" is to turn it into uptime. For example; when gmail is down and you KNOW it will be back up, relax in this moment. Take a break, stand up. Breathe, step away from your computer. Not having your email for 15 minutes won't be that bad...
But may I suggest you first ask yourself: would you sue your IT technician when this happened? Would you dock his pay?
On a more philosophical level, what would you say is decent uptime? 100% (impossible)? 99.99%? 99.7%?
________________________
http://www.librarie-online.com
Do you know if this is the situation for many users?
Eli