GMail is down… again! On the dependency on tech tools
I woke up this morning to find that GMail was down. First, let me clarify that I didn’t have any problems accessing my own email, but I couldn’t talk via Google Chat with any of my contacts. Then, I checked on Twitter and noticed that everyone, from Adam Ostrow (Mashable) to my friend Tris Hussey (M2O) was complaining about GMail and reminding themselves of alternative modes of backup.
I have several Hotmail accounts, a Yahoo and a UBC IMAP account that I have never connected to GMail. Why? Precisely because of this. The minute I become 100% dependent on GMail, the minute I won’t be able to do my work. Of course, I know that there are things that I have on my GMail that are client-associated, and that’s a bit scary. Yet, I feel completely confident that if I need to clarify anything, I can just simply send a tweet, or pick up the phone and call.
Sometimes, it helps NOT to be so tech-dependent.
Related posts:
- Using GMail in offline mode
- My absolute dependency on the iPhone
- Vancouver Young Professionals and Real Estate Tech Meetup recap
- I guess I am in tech!
- My growing dependency on transit in the Metro Vancouver region
I find ‘outages’ like this terribly amusing. While I don’t use gmail myself for much of anything other than a junk account, ALL of the people I presently support are on gmail. None have EVER experienced downtime on days like today. Why? Because they all use IMAP. I can’t imagine being stuck in the absolutely terrible AJAX interface of any of the major vendors save for when you absolutely have to. Given that more and more people are carrying their computers with them (either through their phones, laptops, netbooks, etc) why aren’t they choosing to use the IMAP functionality in mail clients?! It’s the best way of avoiding these frontend downtimes with major hosting services!
I am also appalled at why more people DO NOT use the IMAP functionality. Agreed, it allows us to avoid these downtimes!