On February 24, 2009, Google’s Gmail service went down for several hours. Judging from the countless #gmail Tweets posted every minute on Twitter, the world is in disarray. Suddenly we realize how much we have come to depend on ‘cloud applications’, where data is stored not on our computers, but on remote servers.
Ironically, Google had just started offering an offline option of their email service, where you can work on your email without being online. ‘Why should I?’ was my first thought. ‘Why didn’t I’ is what I’m thinking now!
So you can’t reach your inbox. What to do now? Here are some tips:
1. Work on your todo list. Without the distraction of new emails popping up, you can finally focus on those urgent tasks that you have been procrastinating for way too long now.
2. Use a wordprocessor to write important emails in advance. Do you have to send important information via email today? Use wordpad, Word or any wordprocessor to write those emails in advance and store them on your computer until you can send them out.
3. Use Twitter, your Facebook page and your blog or website to inform your friends that you can’t receive emails. Let them know other ways in which they can reach you. Like the good old telephone. Or an alternative, non-google email address.
4. To avoid trouble in the future, set up your own domain, and redirect email to another service when Gmail goes down again in the future. If your email address is ‘yourname@yourdomain.com’, and you can modify where that email is forwarded to, you wouldn’t be in trouble now!
5. Sit back, relax. Google is probably working very hard to solve this problem. Go outside for a walk, breathe. Look at the real clouds, now that your cloud applications are no longer working. Thank God for all the other low-tech or no-tech means we have to communicate with each other!
Any other tips? Alternatives to Gmail or Google? Post them in the comments below!
And what if you just signed up for a service, and need to reply to the confirmation email, which is in your gmail account.
Yes, Google is working on the issue. Night shift – I think…
“2/24/2009
We’re aware of a problem with Gmail affecting a number of users. This problem occurred at approximately 1.30AM Pacific Time. We’re working hard to resolve this problem and will post updates as we have them. We apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused.”
Confusion all over the internet because of “a little” mailprovider going down temporarily… Amazing!
Thanks Fr. Roderick, see our post http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/email/16319. You were extremly fast with this post !
It’s up for me
Give up Google for Lent. Come up with good alternative ways to do everythig you use Google for, then when Lent is over you will have a solid backup plan.
Syncing Gmail using your mail app still works. See is.gd/59mH for instructions.
Gmail IMAP is working fine, I am receiving emails normally.
Not that that makes me any happier…
You could have put 5 on top and left it like that
Heeft niemand dan gmail imap?
Daarmee kun je nu gewoon je e-mail post nog ophalen en beantwoorden.
Was het eerste wat ik ooit deed toen dat beschikbaar kwam
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=77695
Ondersteunde systemen
* Outlook Express (Windows)
* Outlook 2003 (Windows)
* Outlook 2007 (Windows)
* Apple Mail 2
* Apple Mail 3 (Leopard)
* Windows Mail
* Thunderbird 2
* Other*
Mobile Devices
* Android
* iPhone
* BlackBerry*
* Symbian*
* Windows Mobile 5*
* Windows Mobile 6*
* SnapperMail*
Op dit moment kan je dat natuurlijk niet meer instellen want je moet wel ingelogd zijn in webmail
met vriendelijke groet
yolanda
For me, everything seems to work again.
Thanks god we have Gmail offline
“Heeft niemand dan gmail imap?”
Dat werkt niet echt lekker als je een paar gieg aan mail hebt. Maar verder deed Outlook het wel gewoon via het ouderwetse POP3.