A sweeping outage hit Google and its expansive lineup of apps and services today, causing popular platforms like Gmail, YouTube and Google Docs to be temporarily unavailable. These kinds of service outages are prone to happen from time to time, with companies like Zoom, Garmin and even Comcast experiencing similar outages earlier this year. When it happens with something as big as Google, however, it has the potential to impact a far greater part of the population.
It is common knowledge that Google has managed to extend its reach to mostly everything, since it was founded back in 1998. For example, and although Google remains to be one of the most popular search engines, the company has expanding its presence into many aspects of everyday life, from productivity services like Gmail to entertainment options YouTube and YouTube Music. In fact, more recently Google has also started to make its name within the smart home industry as well. All of which means that when its services shut down, it's a problem.
At 3:47 a.m. Pacific Time, Google reported that exact issue. The Google Cloud Twitter account reported "an authentication system outage" that lasted roughly 45 minutes, attributing the problem to an internal storage quota issue. The outage reportedly shut down not just major services like Gmail and YouTube, but also smart home products like Google Home and even Google Assistant. The Google Cloud Tweet noted that the outage was resolved by 4:32 a.m. Pacific Time, with all affected Google services returning to normal. Due to this, for almost one hour, many users around the world got a glimpse of what life might be like without Google.
Outage Highlights Google's Impact On Everyday Life
This morning's outage was bigger than not just being able to check emails, access documents, or watch funny videos on YouTube before beginning the work day. Smart home technology featuring Google Assistant integration were reportedly down for many users, meaning they had trouble with tasks like turning on lights of adjusting smart thermostats. Even third-party apps were affected by the outage, due to their own reliance on services provided by Google. For many users, their everyday routines were significantly, albeit only for a short time, thrown off.
Perhaps more interesting than the importance of technology in modern day lives, the outage highlighted just how often technology is underpinned by Google. There's almost no aspect of daily life that Google doesn't have some involvement in, even if it the consumer is unaware of itss presence. The company has spent considerable time and financial resources to establish all of these products and services as reliable, and that's part of the reason why so many people use them. However, when something goes wrong, it shines a light on just how much society now relies on Google to make the world go 'round.
Source: Google Cloud/Twitter