Gmail, YouTube, Maps suffer major global outage; Google confirms
What's the story
Some Google services appear to be back online after facing a major outage on Monday. Users around the world reported facing issues with Gmail, YouTube, Docs, Maps, and other Google services. According to DownDetector, which tracks real-time issues and outages with all kinds of services, the issues had started at around 11:56 GMT. Here are more details.
Outage
Users in India, US, Europe, etc., reported issues
Although the extent of the rare outage on Google is unknown, several users in India, the United States, Japan, and the European region had reported facing issues accessing services hosted by the tech company. Many people took to Twitter to share screenshots after they were redirected to error pages while attempting to access Google's services.
Details
Most people could not access Gmail
According to DownDetector, 52% of people reported having trouble watching videos on YouTube. 78% of people reported having trouble accessing their Gmail accounts, while 88% of people reported facing trouble logging into Google. 89% of people reported that their Google Drive app was not loading. 49% of people reported having trouble joining meetings through Google Meet, while 33% could not log in.
Information
Android smartphone users failed to access Maps, Photos
Business tools such as Google Docs, Sheets, etc. had also gone down. Users were also facing trouble accessing Maps and Photos, creating more trouble for Android smartphone users. The app to handle Nest security and thermostat was also reportedly down.
YouTube
Team looking into outage, says YouTube
YouTube was displaying an error message which said, "Something went wrong," along with a graphic of a monkey holding a hammer. Team YouTube tweeted, "We are aware that many of you are having issues accessing YouTube right now - our team is aware and looking into it. We'll update you here as soon as we have more news." The website is now back online.
Twitter Post
You can view the tweet here
We are aware that many of you are having issues accessing YouTube right now – our team is aware and looking into it. We'll update you here as soon as we have more news.
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) December 14, 2020