Google Offline in Germany

Not being able to access any of your favorite services on the Internet is a major bummer for everybody, and knowing that Google is the uncrowned king of the Internet, there's hardly a way to manage without using it even a little. Yet that was the situation in Germany yesterday, when Google Reader, Google Analytics, Google news, Gmail and so on couldn't be accessed for about two hours.

Google Germany was prompt to answer any questions related to the downtime, and sent Philipp Lenssen of Blogoscoped an email saying that: "Apparently this afternoon there were problems with accessing Google through a provider. We are currently investigating the causes and hope that users will soon be able to access Google as usual." The provider mentioned in the statement is T-Com, one of the biggest ISPs in Germany.

Imagine having to wake up one morning and watch in amazement that one of the biggest websites and one of the most prolific services producing-wise companies is just not there anymore. It's a scenario that for many would be a sure sign that the Apocalypse is happening, and it started with the sacrifices from the top down. After all, it's Google we're talking about, the care keeper of the Internet, one of the most admired companies in the United States (according to the latest Fortune poll). If you can't count on it to be there whenever you might need it, what else could you count on?

Google guru Matt Cutts was also involved in the problem, asking questions and poking around for some more insight, but alas there was nothing he could actually do. Many users noticed that even after Google started working again and the problem was solved, they still couldn't access the services offered by the Mountain View-based company. Fortunately, all they had to do was restart the router.