Understanding the difference between Opportunity & Failure [Google Style]

What would happen if everyone in the world pressed "ENTER" or "SEND" at the same time - well, maybe we'd need to ask Google. It appears they are dealing with massive overloads on Gmail [which of course has a limited service level agreement and the majority of people use it for free - so maybe we should expect a few glitches along the way]. The following are a few articles on the subject - but in general, just understand that technology is not stable - and we will never engineer enough computing power, enough bandwidth, enough memory or storage to deal with everyone sending emails at the same time.

Enjoy!

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Is Gmail Ready for Business? CNNMoney.com - Jessi Hempel - ‎1 hour ago‎ Gmail's patrons are still cranky after the Sept. 1 outage that left them without Gmail for nearly two hours. For most users who rely on the free e-mail ... Google's Gmail Goof-Up BusinessWeek - Patrick Thibodeau - ‎10 hours ago‎ It's too bad the National Transportation Safety Board can't investigate Google to find out just why Gmail crashed Tuesday as Google's ... Google's Gmail Outage: A Familiar Feeling PC World - Jr Raphael - ‎16 hours ago‎ Google's official explanation blames a maintenance miscalculation for the glitch -- engineers took some servers offline, it says, and inadvertently ... Millions of users and businesses hit by Gmail outage Inquirer - Paul Taylor - ‎19 hours ago‎ GOOGLE'S GMAIL, the whole web-based shebang, crashed yesterday at lunchtime PDT, leaving tens of millions of Gmail Pro and non-Pro users ... Ken Auletta: Ominous Clouds New Yorker - ‎20 hours ago‎ When Gmail went down yesterday afternoon, I called Ken Auletta, who has written about Google for The New Yorker and whose book about the company, ... Google Explains Why You Didn't Have Gmail Wired News - Ryan Singel - ‎20 hours ago‎ Blame the outage on overworked routers that decided to go on strike. At least that's what Google engineer (and VP) Ben Treynor wrote in a ... Gmail's Cloudburst Globe and Mail - Karim Bardeesy - ‎21 hours ago‎ A 100-minute outage on the web platform of Google's Gmail service wasn't just an inconvenience for millions of users; it's an illustration of the risks ... Google explains, apologizes for Gmail crash Bizjournals.com - ‎21 hours ago‎ Google Inc.'s popular Gmail service crash was the result of a routine service miscalculation, the company explained Tuesday. Ben Treyner, the company's ... Google blames Gmail outage on server maintenance CBC.ca - ‎21 hours ago‎ Google has blamed server maintenance for a widespread Gmail outage that delayed access to the web-based email service for more than an hour Tuesday. ... Gmail Outage Says More About Google Than Clouds InformationWeek - Michael Hickins - ‎22 hours ago‎ Yes, as many observers were quick to point out, this was Gmail's fifth significant outage of the year. But what most of them fail to say is that their own ... Google blames Gmail outage on server maintenance AFP - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ WASHINGTON — Internet giant Google has blamed server maintenance for a Gmail outage which left millions of users without the free Web-based email service ... Gmail outage: Microsoft laughs all the way to the bank Computerworld - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Google's attempt to prove to the world that office apps inexpensively delivered from the cloud beats running PC-based clients got a big setback yesterday, ... Gmail: When efficiency equals death ZDNet UK - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Yesterday, Gmail went down. For nearly two hours, users of the world's most visible cloud service were stuck with a very old-fashioned "502 – unable to ... Google's Gmail Fail Casts Dark Cloud on 'Cloud Computing' PC World - Ian Paul - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Tuesday's Gmail outage was not only an inconvenience it calls into question -- yet again -- the feasibility of present-day cloud computing. ... Gmail Outage Caused By Server Overload, Google Says FOXNews - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Google's Gmail suffered a worldwide crash for nearly two hours Tuesday after it took some servers offline for maintenance, a widespread outage the ... Gmail outage affected majority of users, says Google Telegraph.co.uk - Emma Barnett - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Google has confirmed that the majority of Gmail users worldwide were affected by its crash last night. By Emma Barnett, Technology and Digital Media ... Frustrated Gmail users race to Twitter to vent Computerworld - Sharon Gaudin - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Computerworld - Many of the tens of millions of people who use Google Inc.'s Gmail service have been without e-mail a for an as-yet ... Millions hit as Google mail fails The Sun - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ By STAFF REPORTER WEB giant google had their email system knocked offline this morning — disabling tens of millions of accounts. The outage — which Google ... Google apologises for Gmail outage guardian.co.uk - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Google has apologised after its Gmail service was knocked offline for almost two hours yesterday. The company admitted the failure of Gmail on Tuesday ... Gmail email FAIL: why Gmail went down. #gonegoogle Computerworld - Richi Jennings - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Gmail, Google's email service, was down for an hour or two yesterday, causing widespread wailing and gnashing of teeth. Not just the free version, ... Gmail Fails, Brings Twitter Search Down Techtree.com - Rahul Srinivas - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Gmail had a bad day yesterday. Following reports of an outage earlier in the day, Gmail faced a second massive worldwide service breakdown that lasted for ... Massive overload knocks out Gmail The Press Association - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Google's Gmail service was knocked offline in a huge failure that affected a "majority" of its millions of email users. The tens of millions affected ... Google blames Gfail on 'availability' upgrade Register - ‎Sep 2, 2009‎ Calling Tuesday's one-hour-and-forty-minute Gmail outage a "Big Deal," Google has pinned the breakdown on some recent changes to the request routers that ... GMail outage affects millions around the globe Xinhua - Rob Welham - ‎Sep 1, 2009‎ BEIJING, September 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Google has confirmed its e-mail service GMail was unavailable to the "majority" of its 150 million worldwide users for ... Gmail breakdown frustates Google engineers Economic Times - ‎Sep 1, 2009‎ SAN FRANCISCO: A disruption to Google's Gmail service frustrated users throughout the world on Tuesday and flummoxed engineers at the giant internet company ... Service outage hits "majority" of Gmail users Xinhua - ‎Sep 1, 2009‎ BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Gmail, Google's popular free e-mail service, failed for more than an hour Tuesday in many places, affecting a "majority" of ... Google's Gmail service down nearly 2 hours San Francisco Chronicle - Ryan Kim - ‎Sep 1, 2009‎ Google Inc.'s Gmail service was down for nearly two hours on Tuesday, another in a series of outages that analysts claim can undermine