GTalk Goes Down Globally, Google Investigating The Problem [FIXED]

GTalk or Google Talk, one of the popular instant messaging services by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has suffered a massive outage today. The service used by millions across the world is down in several parts of the world.

Google confirmed the problem at 4.10 pm Indian time (6:40 AM EST), commenting, “We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Talk.”  At 4.20 pm (6:50 AM EST)  Company told on the status page of Google Talk app, “We’re aware of a problem with Google Talk affecting a majority of users. The affected users are able to access Google Talk, but are seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behavior. We will provide an update by 7/26/12 5:20PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.”

Then at 5:20 PM IST (7:50 AM EST), Google posted the following update, “We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 7/26/12 6:20 PM (8:50 AM EST) detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.”

The problem was first detected and reported by a Twitter user, Pete Gould, “Google talk being down is massively annoying! You don’t realise how much you take it for granted.”

Even before the outage many users have been complaining about it since morning (by Indian time). Users experienced non-delivery of messages, contacts were not visible etc.

The latest update from the company read, “Our team is continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 7/26/12 9:50 a.m. EST with more information about this problem. Thank you for your patience.”

Update 9:50 AM EST:  The company says, “We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 7/26/12 10:50 AM EST detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.”

Update 10:50 AM EST: Google Talk service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change.

Update 11:25 AM EST: Company has fixed the issue by dropping this note: The problem with Google Talk should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better. If you are still experiencing an issue, please contact us via the Google Help Center.