Google is struggling to keep some of its most popular services online. Thousands of frustrated users based across the UK have been left unable to access Google Calendar, Gmail — Google’s immensely popular email service, Google Meet — its video conferencing system, amongst others.
The widespread issues appear to have started around 2.31pm BST.
According to independent website DownDetector, which tracks social media activity to monitor when online services are experiencing difficulties, thousands of users have reported problems with popular services like Gmail, Google Meet, YouTube, and the Google search engine.
Thousands of reports from frustrated users unable to access Google services were tracked on independent monitoring service, Down Detector
DOWN DETECTOR
A staggering 11,000 complaints around Google services are being filed every few minutes, DownDetector data shows. Many of these disappointed Google users have taken to social media site X, formerly Twitter, to bemoan the issues.
GB News has been unable to recreate any issues with the search engine available accessible via Google.co.uk in any web browser, but has struggled to open Google Calendar and Gmail.
Most of the issues seem to be limited to Google Workspace accounts, which are used by enterprise and education customers. These paid-for plans bring together services like Google Meet, Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Gmail into a single bundle with cross-platform apps and collaboration tools.
According to DownDetector, the issues seem to be limited to the UK, with no major reports of a Google outage taking place in the United States of America this afternoon.
The latest Google outage comes less than a month after 8.5 million Windows PCs went offline because of a botched software update — causing chaos across the globe.
Although less than 1% of all Windows machines worldwide were impacted, the CrowdStrike outage was one of the worst IT meltdowns ever recorded, grounding flights across Europe and the USA, causing chaos with budget airlines Ryanair and Wizz Air, leaving several banks and businesses unable to accept payment, and cutting off Sky News in the middle of a broadcast. It was triggered by a faulty line of code in an update issued by Texas-based cyber security provider, CrowdStrike, which is used by 8 out of the top 10 financial services, food and beverages, and technology companies.