Earlier this month, Google's popular email service had a major outage. News.com is now reporting that Google has responded to Google Apps Premier users with a credit and a promise to provide better communication tools in case this happens again. Google has issued a 15-day extension of service to all Google Apps Premier users as a credit for the outage. This is the "full SLA credit" Google can give and it has been given to all Premier accounts automatically. In addition, Google hopes to provide a dashboard with "system status information," including a description of the problem and a conti [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail

It is not uncommon for Gmail (Google Email) users to complain about outages and issues with sending and receiving email. But right now, there are hundreds of Gmail users complaining that Gmail is down or simply not sending or receiving emails. A current search at Twitter on Gmail will return hundreds of messages with Gmail complaints. I am personally receiving a "Temporary Error (502)" and was receiving other weird errors when trying the Gmail interface. Some are reporting that Gmail is working fine through POP and IMAP protocols, but just not via the web interface. Currently we have no [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail

It appears that Google's Gmail SMTP (send mail) server might have let their secure certificate expire. I personally just got notified that the smtp.gmail.com server was not secure due to the certificate expiring. Here is a screen capture: So, it seems like it just expired just minutes ago. I asked others to confirm the issue and they said they are getting the same error. Scott Hodge did twit about a month ago about the same issue. But this is the first time I am seeing this issue and the certificate clearly shows that it expired just minutes ago. Postscript: A Google spokesperson tol [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail

It appears that Google is having major issues with their email server. In the past 15 minutes, I received a few phones, tons of twits, and found a fast growing Google Groups thread about Google removing IMAP from their email settings options. This seems to be a major issue, where hundreds of Gmail users can no longer use Gmail or their email on Google Apps. If you login to your Gmail account and click on "settings," you may notice that the IMAP option is gone. Here is a screen capture: Also, Rudd sent me a screen capture of errors he is receiving via Outlook when trying to connect to G [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Apps For Your Domain | Google: Gmail

Google Talk has announced a couple new features, including Google Talk Chatback and invisible mode. The first feature is similar to a live chat box that you can add to any web page and chat with anyone via your Google Talk or Gmail account. Google calls the feature "chatback," and it allows anyone, even without a Google Talk account, to talk to you via your Google Talk account. The second feature is "invisible" mode for your Gmail and Google Talk status. Google says this feature comes in handy when your away status is just not good enough. This way people don't even see you to instant mes [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail

Google says ISP glitch exposes Gmail data in Kuwait from News.com has confirmed reports that a Gmail user in Kuwait has inadvertently accessed about 30 Gmail accounts that were not his. Supposedly, he also accessed an email that had "keycodes for some embassy gate." Whose fault is this? Not Google! A Kuwaiti ISP was having some major caching issues, which results in people seeing other people's content when accessing the same URL. Have you ever gone to a web page on your computer and noticed that it was showing old content? That is a web page's cache. Typically holding down the shift a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail | Legal: Security

Google's plan to socialize its various applications continues. Google Operating System has spotted code in Gmail that may lead to a Facebook-style news feed of status updates from your Gmail contacts. More about this and Google's continued "stealth social network" moves below. Back in September, Google launched a friends update feature on Orkut. Activity Streams & Other Social Nuggets From Leaked Google Video covers this plus how Google is working to create "activity streams" for all of its products as a way to make them more social and akin to Facebook. In October, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Gmail | Google: OpenSocial

The Google Talkabout Blog announced the launch of an instant messenger bot that is an interpreter. An instant messenger bot is a little computer program that accepts instant messages and automatically replies to them. AOL has the AIM Bot program for years, allowing developers to create these bots as they see fit. In any event, Google released a new bot that utilizes Google Translate and acts as your personal interpreter. Google currently has 29 different translation bots, including: ar2en bg2en de2en de2fr el2en en2ar en2de en2el en2es en2fr en2it en2ja en2ko en2nl en2ru en2zh es2en fi2en [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail | Google: Translate

IDG News and Search Engine Roundtable discuss the "inappropriate disabling" of an unknown number of GMail accounts late last week. Google was apparently going after spammers and got a little overzealous. The company said that the outage affected less than 1 percent of all users and reportedly all the accounts that were wrongly disabled are back up. While GMail has millions of users, it lags Yahoo Mail and Microsoft's Hotmail in marketshare. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail

Yesterday, Google announced that you can now login and talk to AOL Instant Messenger users via Google Talk, through Google Talk's Gmail interface. Making the two instant messaging tools work together is a feature promised way back when AOL and Google formed a strategic alliance in December 2005. If you read the old press release, one of the conditions of the agreement was: Enabling Google Talk and AIM instant messaging users to communicate with each other, provided certain conditions are met Now, Gmail users can log into AIM via Gmail and see their AIM buddy list. The AIM buddy list wil [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: Gmail

The Google Blog announced that Gmail has added colors to labels. Labels in Gmail are basically virtual folders. Assigning labels by actions can really streamline how you use email. Google has decided to add colors to labels in order to make the labels you defined more visual. If you want to add colors to your labels, follow these instructions. For more help on labels, go here. Note: This new feature is only available in IE7 and Firefox 2 browsers. More coverage can be found at Techmeme. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail

A much discussed blog posting this morning comes from Saul Hansell at the New York Times, who spoke to both Google and Yahoo about their plans to turn their email products into social networks, in a manner of speaking: "Inbox 2.0." The plans discussed in the post suggest some clever and creative thinking about how both companies can leverage their existing products and integrate them with other properties. But people at both companies also seem to be in a kind of frenzy, which may turn out to be unjustified in the long run, over how to compete with Facebook. Here's what Hansell says about Go [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail | Google: iGoogle | Google: OpenSocial | Google: Orkut | Yahoo: Mail | Yahoo: My Yahoo

The Gmail Blog has announced they have been making structural changes to the Gmail code base to make Gmail iterate faster and share components with other Google applications such as Google Groups, Page Creator, and Contact Manager. How do you know if you have the new Gmail? If you login to Gmail and look at the top right of the page and see a link for "Older Version," that means you have the new Gmail. Honestly, I did not know I had the new version until I saw all the news at Techmeme about it. Don't have the new Gmail, or you do have it and don't know what is different? Gmail 2.0 Screen [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail

It appears that Gmail is now supporting the IMAP protocol as of today. Download Squad was one of the first to report the new functionality found under the Gmail settings section. There is now a ton of coverage on the new Gmail feature. On the Gmail What's New page, we have confirmation that IMAP is an official new feature (Google has also now blogged about it). Here is a screen capture of the IMAP feature in Gmail: IMAP, in my opinion, totally is superior to the POP protocol. It enables you to use multiple devices to check your email, and changes made on one device show up immediately [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail

The Gmail Blog announced that in an effort to continue to gradually increase the storage space for their Gmail users, they have updated their counter algorithm. The new formula will speed up the rate at which they increase the capacity for email storage in Gmail. Googlified documents how this new algorithm will impact your storage capacity as time goes on: 2912MB by October 11, 2007 midnight Google time 4.2GB by the 23rd of this month 6GB by January 4th next year 42GB by the year of 2038 and 2.70266701 × 1072 TB* by 1/2/3456 7:00 More coverage on this Gmail announcement at Techmeme. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail

Google boosts corporate e-mail service from the AP reports that Google is adding security and more email storage space to Gmail for their corporate users. Google purchased Postini, a software security for electronic communications company, back in July. They will be utilizing the Postini technology to add security software to Gmail and their other online applications. Google has also increased the storage capacity for these corporate users from 10 gigabytes to 25 gigabytes. More coverage of this news at Techmeme. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Apps For Your Domain | Google: Gmail

Google fined in German Gmail trademark case from News.com reports Google was ordered by a German court to pay $14,000 over using m.gmail.com for their mobile Gmail users. As we know, Google lost the Gmail trademark case in Germany and was ordered to stop using Gmail.com. It appears that Google violated that with m.gmail.com and was thus ordered to pay the fine. Google said in a statement: We will pay the money to the German State as required by the Court of Appeal in Hamburg. We now use 'Googlemail' across Germany and believe our users are very happy both with the name and the service [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Gmail | Google: Legal | Legal: Trademarks

The Google Blog announced they are allowing users to pay for additional storage for Gmail and Picasa. Currently Google gives you 1GB of free space for Picasa and 2.8GB of free space for Gmail. You can now buy additional space, and Google hopes to expand this service to their other services, such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets. The current plans are: 6GB for $20.00 per year, 25GB for $75.00 per year, 100GB $250.00 per year, and 250 GB $500.00 per year. You can purchase the additional storage over here, and you can check your current storage usage at this page. Google Blogoscoped has screen [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail | Google: Picasa | Microsoft: General

Google loses Gmail trademark case in Germany from News.com reports that Google has lost the Gmail trademark case in a German appellate court. Google will not be allowed to use Gmail in Germany, like they can't in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Google Threatens to Close German Gmail Due to Local Law from Google Blogoscoped reports that Google may close down the Gmail service in Germany due to privacy concerns. Philipp Lenssen explains that local German law may require Google to require full addresses of Gmail users, severely impacting user anonymity. Postscript: It is not official, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Gmail | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Legal: Trademarks

Yahoo announced that they will be offering "unlimited email storage starting in May 2007" to everyone. The announcement also gives a wonderful historical roundup of Yahoo Mail's almost 10 year history. Google Operating System has a post comparing Yahoo's timeline to Google's Gmail timeline. In addition, Google Operating System has an older post estimating the growth of Gmail's capacity throughout April 1, 2012. Finally, if you are interested in more coverage, check out the roundup at Techmeme.com. Postscript from Greg: AOL reminded us that it has offered free, unlimited email storage sin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail | Yahoo: Mail