Fixed: Gmail service now back online

by Stevie Smith - Aug 12 2008, 11:50

A sudden problem with Google’s Gmail e-mail application, which abruptly hamstrung the popular service earlier this week, has now been rectified according to the Internet search giant’s online Gmail Help Center.

“Engineers have pinpointed the issue causing the 502 errors and it looks as if users should start to regain normal functioning of their account,” explained an official update posted by the Help Center. “Thanks for being patient while we worked to sort out this problem.”

While the problem has apparently been corrected, Google is advising users to expect deliveries to perhaps be a little slower than usual as backlog is cleared. The company also insisted that any incoming e-mail will be safe.

The service error, which Google claims emanated from an outage related to the contacts system of Gmail, saw account holders either having trouble accessing, or completely unable to access, their online mail from around 2pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Monday.

“The issue was caused by a temporary outage in the contacts system used by Gmail which prevented Gmail from loading properly,” commented an official Google spokesperson.

Gmail users in the United States, Canada and India experienced problems with the service, and there are also reports to suggest that even Google’s own corporate e-mail was temporarily crippled by the unexpected contacts-based speed bump.

Technology Web site CNET outlines that Gmail’s failure prompted a rash of comments on Twitter, which saw concerned account holders posting literally “dozens of items a second” in relation to the surprise service hiccup.

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