Google is well-known for its app suite, especially for the highly popular Gmail. Gmail has shown as one of the most innovative, stable, and all-around awesome utilities on the web. Nevertheless, the service has just experienced a glitch so bad that it has some users wishing that Larry Page and Sergey Brinn had never given birth to their mental lovechild. It may seem extreme, but you’d be upset too if you entered your inbox only to find that your entire account – including messages, contacts, and attachments – had all been completely wiped out.
Google assures us that this is a very limited issue, affecting about .02% of people. While this number may seem low, keep in mind that it equates to about one in 5000. Estimates for total account loss reach about 150,000. The glitch took the form of a complete account reset, removing all saved features, messages, etc., and re-sending the welcome message.
Luckily, users will be getting their accounts back in the near future. Google has promised that a restoral will take place to give users access to all this mission-critical data. That process won’t be as simple as originally thought, however. While Google does store data in multiple data centers, this particular glitched wiped out all the networked copies. Google does have an offline copy on tape, though (one more thing for privacy proponents to worry about), so a restoral will be taking place – it’ll just take a bit longer, and Google hasn’t told us exactly what that means.
This error occured fairly immediately after a similar glitch in Google Calendar, where approximately .125% of users lost their event and appointment information. Exactly what the source of the error might be, or if the two bugs are related, is unclear. However, if Google doesn’t shape up soon, they will quickly lose their reputation for stability.
[via Mashable and the Gmail Blog]
