Gmail, the well-known mail solution provided by the search giant, now encounters several downtime problems after it was unavailable for a long period of time. As you know, Gmail is quite popular and it was recently made freely available to all the users after the beta product was introduced in April 2004. PC World reported that Gmail was unavailable on Tuesday morning and evening, numerous users confirming the problems with the mail service. I guess the problems appeared only for the users from certain regions because I'm really a huge Gmail fan and I must say the product was accessible for the entire day.

"A number of Gmail users are having some difficulty accessing and sending mail, and we are working as quickly as we can to resolve the problem. Some Google Apps accounts are also affected. We know how important e-mail is to our users, so we take issues like this very seriously," a Google spokesman sustained in an e-mail according to PC World.

The Google team sustained that both free and premium users are affected so the bug is quite important. Gmail is also a part of the Google Apps suite, a collection of Google services that are often regarded as the most important rival for the old fashioned Microsoft Office.

As I said, Gmail was quite stable in the recent period so I guess it depends on the location you access the mail service. Although Gmail works well, I must say I'm really disappointed about Google Reader, the online service that allows you to receive messages and latest information through RSS feeds. Because I'm a Google Reader fan, I access the service a lot and I'm continuously reading news through this product. Today, the product returned me a lot of errors that made me think I really need a downloadable RSS client.