Gmail Login Error 502

Depending on email for a big part of one's life can sometimes come and bite one in the arse. Gmail users experienced this first hand over the past weekend, when many turned to Google Groups and reported that they could not sign into their mail accounts and that they were greeted with a 'friendly' 502 error when attempting it.

Google started addressing the issue as soon as they found out about it, but it was only this morning when the problem ceased to exist. Over the weekend complainers were met by a Google Guide posting in the respective thread and saying that "I'm sorry to hear that some of you are unable to access your accounts due to 502 errors. Our team is currently aware of the problem and we are working to get things back up and running for you. Please visit our Gmail Updates and Alerts subgroup for up to date information on this problem."

Every other service linked to the Google Account worked just fine, users had no trouble using their Calendar and even accessing their Account Settings, but when trying to check the mail, the infamous error popped up again. It was not localized or an error with the browser, a user tried Gmail on 3 different computers, 2 different browsers and 3 different networks with completely different routing, as he complained.

By definition, 502 is a temporary error that is supposed to only last for a few minutes, but after all, what is time when you really need to read a message other than an empty void that you fall into and that never ends? That's the dramatized version. After 3 hours from receiving the 502, people started getting impatient and reacted. After 7 hours, Google answered. After 3 days, the error was still there. What does that say about the 'user comes first' policy? Granted it was weekend, but we're talking about a huge company that should always have people on guard for occasions such as this.