Users of Google's email service Gmail were hit by a blackout yesterday (February 24th), which could have lost them valuable contact information and may have prompted people to consider
computer insurance.
The service went offline just minutes after the start to the working day and left many business and consumer users without their email for four hours.
Figures released by ComScore reveal that 113 million people worldwide use Gmail, the BBC reports, meaning many people may have encountered disruption to their normal operations as a result of the blackout.
Google has since apologised for the incident, while Todd Jackson, product manager for Google Mail, wrote in his blog that a full review of what went wrong was not being conducted.
Paul Trotter, in a blog for PC Advisor, advised that one way for people to discover if their email server was down or whether they were actually encountering a problem with their own online service or computer was to run a search on Twitter.
A computer insurance policy from
InsureandGo may bring peace of mind to users who have suffered problems with their machines.
