On Monday, Google’s very popular Gmail service experienced some problems and users were unable to access their e-mail accounts. The service stopped working at about 5 p.m. Eastern Time; website visitors were greeted with the following message: "We're sorry, but your Gmail account is currently experiencing errors."

Todd Jackson, Gmail product manager, was very prompt in issuing a blog post which assured everyone that the company was well aware of the situation and that Google people were very sorry for the inconvenience. According to the manager, it was because of a contacts system temporary outage that the service could not function properly.

About two and a half hours later, Google announced the outage had come to an end. On the Gmail Help Discussion forum, one could read "Users who were temporarily affected by the 502 errors should now be able to access their account."

Todd Jackson also mentioned the numerous phone calls and e-mails the company received from Gmail users who were complaining about the malfunction. Google’s approach is a bit different that those found with other companies; while apologies are quite common in such situations, they usually only include an explanation and a date for the moment when everything would be taken care of. As Google also said it was very sorry, these few words may have helped a lot with the users’ perception on the whole thing.

Todd Jackson went on to say that the problem’s source had been identified and fixed. The company is now putting together a review and intends to make certain adjustments to its system, based on what results the analysis will bring.