Google Responds to Outages with Apps Status Dashboard

By Chelsi Nakano | Published Mar 12, 2009

Nobody’s perfect. Even Internet overlord Google has its faults. For example, we’re sure all of you have been frustrated from time to time with Big G’s occasional bouts of downtime.

In an effort to quell all the nervous twitching that immediately spreads like Web-wildfire as soon as anything Google-related hiccups, a new Apps Status thingy has been introduced — and it's strikingly similar to something Zoho kicked out late last year.

Featuring a list of Google's core apps, Google's new Apps Status Dashboard is a daily tally of any outages or disruptions.

Any time any of these services experience trouble, various icons notify the users. After the problem is fixed, information is added about what the problem was, when it occurred, and even how long it took to implement a solution.

This new feature is most likely a response to the outrage over recent Google failures — like, the Februrary Gmail downtime, or when every page found in Google's index was flagged as potentially harmful. Perhaps this is also a response to Zoho.

Another possible variant is that it’s the result of requests from business customers. One of their most frequently cited reasons for not using Google Apps is a lack of control over the applications they depend on.

Whatever the case, the new feature is clearly trying to re-affirm current and potential customers’ confidence in the reliability of Google Apps. Here’s to that.