Should Gmail be held to a higher reliability standard?

Analysis
Sep 24, 20092 mins

How much downtime is ok for cloud-based e-mail?

When Google contacts crashed yesterday, it created Google’s second high-profile outage this month. It took out Gmail and Gtalk, Google’s chat service, that relies on contacts. The Gmail problem comes on the heels of an hour-and-a-half Google News glitch Tuesday.

Most of us use the free version of Gmail and most of us rely on it. Does Gmail, and its attendant services, crash more than do similar services offered by corporate networks? If so, should Google be held to a higher standard, even for freeware?

I’ve of a mind to say, no. That if you don’t pay for it and you have to do without it for a few hours during a workday every few weeks, that this is a fair trade. Many other freebie e-mail systems are available to you, should you want to walk with your feet, or have a backup for those days when Google splutters.

Do you agree or disagree?

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