The unthinkable has happened. I was so confident and trusting that Google will be reliable with its email service Gmail, so I used my three (3) gmail addresses as the easiest and fastest way to communicate with me through email. Since yesterday, July 31, 2008, I had difficulty even just getting the log in page of gmail. At first, I thought it was down for maintenance so I tried to access the log inpage of gmail every 15 minutes or so. At one point after about 2 hours, I was able to access and log in to my email addresses. I thought I was right that it was just down for maintenance. After checking my emails, I proceeded to other websites that Iwork on. It has been my routine to check my gmails at least 3 times a day. But from that point on I was never able to access gmail again. That is a question of reliability of gmail and Google. If ever I experienced anything like it with Yahoo! and hotmail, the most would be an hour or two.

The truth is I am quite an impatient fellow when it comes to things like this. I was surprised that my patience held even a pop-up always comes as "application/octet-stream" that I thought was needed to be downloaded to access Gmail. I downloaded it almost everytime but I still wan not able to access the gmail log in page, much more log in. It almost drove me crazy because almost everything emailed to me was at gmail. I have to their help, support, FAQ and contact support but everything has gone naught.

I have tried everything that their system mentioned. Download the toolbar again, clear cookies or cache, verify the account, change password and go to all the links the system suggested. Nada! There was nothing there that worked to address my problem. In disgust, I have filled up their complaint 4 or 5 times, cursing them on a couple of times. Their system says they would respond after a number of days! My email comes daily and what goes past one day is gone for good! So how would that help me?

As this would be the second day I am unable to access my emails at Gmail of Google, I had to go and change my email addresses on several websites I am with, from Gmail to Yahoo! Maybe Google is now bigger thn Yahoo! but when it comes to service, Yahoo is a thousand times bigger than Google. I have had problems with Yahoo. The latest was with MyBlogLog which I almost did not bother going back to. But, they resolved my issue with the least effort on my end. They did what was needed to be done. I could not see anything lost on works I submitted with them and it is still doing well for me.

I am aware that we get paid by Adsense here aside from our pages being linked to blogger that also provides income. Looking at the issue in a general perspective, what I might have earned or gained with them could have been also lost on the emails I could not access! In short, it could easily be said that I am back to square one or zero!

After posting this and looking for further remedies to access my emails at gmail, suddenly I was able to access gmail and get into my emails. It could have been after an hour or two when I did check again. I don't even know if the google web accelerator that I downloaded helped. If ever it was the issue gmail should have informed all their users of gmail.

Even if gmail has unlimited storage for email, I have religiously deleted emails sent to me that have served their purpose. In short, I did not take advantage of the opportunity to store more than what I need. I understand that while there are more emails are stored it slows down the system. Still, there was no apology from gmail and just sent me an email about issues in logging in that did have anything to do with my problem.

It is really very disappointing for Gmail unable to provide service restoration as short as Yahoo! does. Today, it took more than an hour for me to be able to access and log in to my gmail accounts. But, again, I was able to log in at blogspot and adsense during that time!

Then, when I was able to log in to my gmail, I clicked to open a mail and an error showed that the reason could be my ISP. Why blame my ISP when their system itself stated that it was not possible to access gmail in the first place? After hoovering on that page waiting for my mail to show, my PC monitor suddenly shut off while my CPU was still running! I could not turn off the CPU from the button in several attempts and to turn off the AVR! I tried to switch on my monitor several times with the CPU but nothing worked. I scanned for virus when I was able to switch on both monitor and CPU but there was no virus!

My computer is now working without really having to do anything specific! Was it possible that gmail was being hacked and almost got into my system?