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For fifteen minutes yesterday afternoon--from 3:45 to 4pm PT--Google, and other Google services such as Gmail, were unavailable. Google blamed the outage on DNS problems and said that hacking was not involved, but there are rumors out there that some people who tried to go to Google ended up at a different search engine.
Whatever the cause, this was not exactly a national emergency--if you needed to find something during those fifteen minutes, you could always have used one of countless other search engines. But historically, Google has been so dependable that it's startling to remember that a mere DNS glitch (be it accidental or hacker-driven) could knock it offline. Just about every other well-known Internet-related service from AOL to eBay to Hotmail has had at least one notorious stretch of downtime, but this is the first one I recall for Google.
Google didn't exactly have a great week, given that its new Google Web Accelerator service is also stirring up lots of controversy, including charges that it may unintentionally shunt users into other people's online accounts.
What's your take on Google? Is it indispensable? Is it flirting with overstepping the boundaries of responsible Web citizenship with some of its new projects? Or both? Or neither?
Comments
Posted by Stoney on Monday, May 09, 2005, 06:08 AM (PST)
NOTHING in the computer world is indespensable ! The technology sitting on the average desktop reading this column are nothing but the stepping stones to 'bigger, better, faster' technology on the way.
Do I think they flirting with the boundaries of being a good "Web Citizen" No. I think they are getting a bit greedy, and if they release the Web Accelerator knowing it will allow folks access to other's accounts, forums, etc they are opening themselves to a rather stupid totally avoidable and fully desired law suit (Welcome to America)
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 09, 2005, 06:11 AM (PST)
...sorry... "Deserved" not desired. Hate it when that happens....
Posted by berrick on Monday, May 09, 2005, 06:15 AM (PST)
The graveyards are full of indispensible people. Are we SO stretched out that we have to have everything NOW ! Cant we wait a few moments, go and have a break from this infernal machine, go and make a cup of coffee (and get more caffeine in the system). Google have worked wonders for me, no regrets.
Posted by Count on Monday, May 09, 2005, 06:36 AM (PST)
(pointing at my eye in the outdated "Do I look like I care" gesture)
Posted by rphunt on Monday, May 09, 2005, 07:20 AM (PST)
Is Google indispensable? That's irrelevant. But this is yet another wake up call telling us not to let ANYTHING on the web be indispensable.
Regarding "Web Citiznship", this question just displays more naivete about what the web is. It is NOT a community, it is open ground that can be used in any way by anyone. There is always someone trying to coopt a large chunk of web usage for theier own benefit, and there always will be.
The best way to counteract this is through consumer education. The "Google Accelerator" question should be a major news item, but it gets relegated to a minor article in a computer mag, like most tech issues.
Posted by Scott on Monday, May 09, 2005, 10:09 AM (PST)
Google has become a mainstay and household word. People depend on Google for a lot of things. Its great search engine and its dependability are the mainstay of their existance. Very inconvinient to have it go down.
Posted by Mark Ma on Monday, May 09, 2005, 10:28 AM (PST)
In a recent literacy test in China, there was only one question on the test: Do you what Google is?
For me as a business professional, search engines are indispensable. They increase the quality of my work by a huge, unimaginable margin. I use Google 95% of the time, but I'll try other search engines as a back-up just in case this happen again to Google.
Posted by Kevin Baron on Monday, May 09, 2005, 11:08 AM (PST)
Yeah google is my home page. but i use it only to search, Fact is i dont like toolbars of any kinds. I don't have 20 million search issues a day that i would need anyone's toolbar to take up space and resources. And email and web accellerators. What's the point here. I don't see google as anything more then a search site. And although it is my default search page, i dont have any loyalty to them. People give them to much credit and to much money. They and i am sure every search site gives you search results based which company paid them the most money for a spot. Much like a glorfied yellow pages. Nothing nice about that. Not sure i tried any of there programs. I've heard some stories in recent years that makes me watchfull of them. I'm not a yahoo junkie either .
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 09, 2005, 12:38 PM (PST)
I use a few of the Google servies myself (e-mail, vid hosting, and the regualr web search) I have nothing but good things to say here for them, but the fact they went down for a few minuits does not bother me, It happens, My sites have all gone down from time to time, so have most if not all major websites.
Posted by SEO Lassie on Monday, May 09, 2005, 02:17 PM (PST)
A few ideas come to mind. First: any code written by one person can end up getting hacked by another person. Google is just a bunch of code. This was bound to happen sooner or later. With so many people, especially those in SEO, having feelings for Google ranging from love to hate as if it were a live creature, somebody could have done it one day, so no surprise. The most unpleasant thing was not to know how long the downtime would be, and what would be possibly lost when it recovered - site rankings? email box contents? God knows what else?
Second: regarding Google's Accelerator and it's privacy issues, no hope for a court case as they call it a beta, and they probably do it for a reason to avoid courts
Google's share of the search market is increasing, and at this point it's really dangerous if we all get tricked into using Google's web, not the Interweb as we knew it, and playing by Google's rules.
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 09, 2005, 02:25 PM (PST)
I used GWA for a few days before I removed it because of the problems it has and saved 2 minutes. What is the point of saving two minutes over a few days (and hours of use each day)?
Posted by Steve on Monday, May 09, 2005, 02:40 PM (PST)
Google is right beside Apple as one of my favorite companies. They're on top of their game, and it will take a major force to part me from my love of them.
Posted by Rahman Noble on Tuesday, May 10, 2005, 12:40 AM (PST)
I respect the GOOGLE way.....! They are really talent and very reponsible company..!
source
*
For fifteen minutes yesterday afternoon--from 3:45 to 4pm PT--Google, and other Google services such as Gmail, were unavailable. Google blamed the outage on DNS problems and said that hacking was not involved, but there are rumors out there that some people who tried to go to Google ended up at a different search engine.
Whatever the cause, this was not exactly a national emergency--if you needed to find something during those fifteen minutes, you could always have used one of countless other search engines. But historically, Google has been so dependable that it's startling to remember that a mere DNS glitch (be it accidental or hacker-driven) could knock it offline. Just about every other well-known Internet-related service from AOL to eBay to Hotmail has had at least one notorious stretch of downtime, but this is the first one I recall for Google.
Google didn't exactly have a great week, given that its new Google Web Accelerator service is also stirring up lots of controversy, including charges that it may unintentionally shunt users into other people's online accounts.
What's your take on Google? Is it indispensable? Is it flirting with overstepping the boundaries of responsible Web citizenship with some of its new projects? Or both? Or neither?
Comments
Posted by Stoney on Monday, May 09, 2005, 06:08 AM (PST)
NOTHING in the computer world is indespensable ! The technology sitting on the average desktop reading this column are nothing but the stepping stones to 'bigger, better, faster' technology on the way.
Do I think they flirting with the boundaries of being a good "Web Citizen" No. I think they are getting a bit greedy, and if they release the Web Accelerator knowing it will allow folks access to other's accounts, forums, etc they are opening themselves to a rather stupid totally avoidable and fully desired law suit (Welcome to America)
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 09, 2005, 06:11 AM (PST)
...sorry... "Deserved" not desired. Hate it when that happens....
Posted by berrick on Monday, May 09, 2005, 06:15 AM (PST)
The graveyards are full of indispensible people. Are we SO stretched out that we have to have everything NOW ! Cant we wait a few moments, go and have a break from this infernal machine, go and make a cup of coffee (and get more caffeine in the system). Google have worked wonders for me, no regrets.
Posted by Count on Monday, May 09, 2005, 06:36 AM (PST)
(pointing at my eye in the outdated "Do I look like I care" gesture)
Posted by rphunt on Monday, May 09, 2005, 07:20 AM (PST)
Is Google indispensable? That's irrelevant. But this is yet another wake up call telling us not to let ANYTHING on the web be indispensable.
Regarding "Web Citiznship", this question just displays more naivete about what the web is. It is NOT a community, it is open ground that can be used in any way by anyone. There is always someone trying to coopt a large chunk of web usage for theier own benefit, and there always will be.
The best way to counteract this is through consumer education. The "Google Accelerator" question should be a major news item, but it gets relegated to a minor article in a computer mag, like most tech issues.
Posted by Scott on Monday, May 09, 2005, 10:09 AM (PST)
Google has become a mainstay and household word. People depend on Google for a lot of things. Its great search engine and its dependability are the mainstay of their existance. Very inconvinient to have it go down.
Posted by Mark Ma on Monday, May 09, 2005, 10:28 AM (PST)
In a recent literacy test in China, there was only one question on the test: Do you what Google is?
For me as a business professional, search engines are indispensable. They increase the quality of my work by a huge, unimaginable margin. I use Google 95% of the time, but I'll try other search engines as a back-up just in case this happen again to Google.
Posted by Kevin Baron on Monday, May 09, 2005, 11:08 AM (PST)
Yeah google is my home page. but i use it only to search, Fact is i dont like toolbars of any kinds. I don't have 20 million search issues a day that i would need anyone's toolbar to take up space and resources. And email and web accellerators. What's the point here. I don't see google as anything more then a search site. And although it is my default search page, i dont have any loyalty to them. People give them to much credit and to much money. They and i am sure every search site gives you search results based which company paid them the most money for a spot. Much like a glorfied yellow pages. Nothing nice about that. Not sure i tried any of there programs. I've heard some stories in recent years that makes me watchfull of them. I'm not a yahoo junkie either .
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 09, 2005, 12:38 PM (PST)
I use a few of the Google servies myself (e-mail, vid hosting, and the regualr web search) I have nothing but good things to say here for them, but the fact they went down for a few minuits does not bother me, It happens, My sites have all gone down from time to time, so have most if not all major websites.
Posted by SEO Lassie on Monday, May 09, 2005, 02:17 PM (PST)
A few ideas come to mind. First: any code written by one person can end up getting hacked by another person. Google is just a bunch of code. This was bound to happen sooner or later. With so many people, especially those in SEO, having feelings for Google ranging from love to hate as if it were a live creature, somebody could have done it one day, so no surprise. The most unpleasant thing was not to know how long the downtime would be, and what would be possibly lost when it recovered - site rankings? email box contents? God knows what else?
Second: regarding Google's Accelerator and it's privacy issues, no hope for a court case as they call it a beta, and they probably do it for a reason to avoid courts
Google's share of the search market is increasing, and at this point it's really dangerous if we all get tricked into using Google's web, not the Interweb as we knew it, and playing by Google's rules.Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 09, 2005, 02:25 PM (PST)
I used GWA for a few days before I removed it because of the problems it has and saved 2 minutes. What is the point of saving two minutes over a few days (and hours of use each day)?
Posted by Steve on Monday, May 09, 2005, 02:40 PM (PST)
Google is right beside Apple as one of my favorite companies. They're on top of their game, and it will take a major force to part me from my love of them.
Posted by Rahman Noble on Tuesday, May 10, 2005, 12:40 AM (PST)
I respect the GOOGLE way.....! They are really talent and very reponsible company..!
source
Well, I suppose it had to happen to them sometime...
