Google Talk back in service after suffering global outage

 Google Talk, a popular instant messaging service used by millions across the world, suffered a massive outage lasting over four hours on Thursday. The outage, which started around 4PM India time, affected users across the world. The service was restored around 8.25PM. 

The outage was first reported by users on Twitter, a social networking website. "Google talk being down is massively annoying! You don't realise how much you take it for granted," Pete Gould, a Twitter user said. 

Many Google Talk users reported that they could log into the service, saw their contacts with the respective status but failed to send messages to them. Some other users could not log in. The service is not only used by people to keep in touch with friends but has also become a popular way to interact with co-workers in offices. 

According to Google, the service was restored around 8.25PM. "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," said the company. 

However, Google did not explain what caused the outage and how many users were affected by it. 

Nearly 40 minutes after this message, the company declared that Google Talk service was fully restored. "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," it said. 

Earlier, Google responded fast to the problem. It acknowledged that Google Talk service was having some issues at 4.10PM, saying, "We're investigating reports of an issue with Google Talk." 

At 4.20PM, the company updated the status of Google Talk, terming the problem an outage. 

"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," the company said on the status page of Google Talk app. 

After that the company provided hourly report on the outage.