Apparently, Google’s Gmail service experienced a fairly significant outage today. Fortunately, I wasn’t affected, but I started thinking about how much of my Internet life is tied up with Google. If a more widespread outage of their services occurred, to what degree would my daily routine suffer?
Before Google, I was a Yahoo! man through and through. While I still use Yahoo! for a few things (like fantasy baseball), my online experience has shifted almost entirely to Google.
Google’s minimalist user interface is what attracted me to the company initially. When they were just doing search, and you surfed to google.com, all you saw was their logo, the search box and the submit button. I like that they’ve maintained the spirit of that aesthetic throughout their massive diversification. Their layouts are primarily text-based and very clean.
On a daily basis, here are the Google services I access:
- Gmail - It’s my main email account. I have forwarders on my other addresses pointing toward Gmail. For me, it’s Google’s killer app.
- Analytics - I’ve activated analytics for all of the personal sites that I operate (including onethingnew.com) so I can monitor traffic and make sure that my content is user friendly to my visitors.
- Personalized Homepage - I’ve got widgets for local weather, RSS feeds, Wikipedia search, and a few others. I check the headlines, get my word of the day (profligate!), and play with my Google Eyes.
- Adsense - I’ve just started using Adsense on onethingnew.com, and I love how non-intrusive it is. I think it’s fun to see some of the ads that get generated for the blog. I’m not sure Adsense knows what to make of me yet.
Besides those, I have dabbled with Blogger, orkut, Google Groups, and Google Docs. When we were house hunting, Google Maps was indispensable. And I haven’t even mentioned the myriad searches I do throughout the day. In any given day, I’d say I spend about 20-30% of my Web time on Google-related sites. That’s a lot. And I’m sure there are folks who spend more.
So what happens if Google crashes? Until today, I wasn’t sure that was possible. Seems like we all take for granted just how reliable they are. We also take for granted that the majority of their services are free to the end user. What obligation does Google really have to provide uninterrupted service?
I’m not saying the sky is falling, but I think these are valid questions to ask. It’s never smart to keep all your eggs in one basket, even if it’s the biggest basket around. And I fear that I’ve done just that.
I’m still going to use Google’s services, but my confidence in them has been shaken a bit. I will proceed with caution, and you should, too.
