Google Talk (GTalk) experiencing technical issues around the world

26 Jul 2012

Google’s chat system Google Talk appears to have collapsed around the world with users unable to use the service. Users are reporting they can’t access contacts or send messages.

“We’re aware of a problem with Google Talk affecting a majority of users,” the company said on the Google Apps Status Dashboard.

“The affected users are able to access Google Talk, but are seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behaviour.

“We will provide an update by 7/26/12 12:50 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change,” the internet giant said.

This was followed by a second message that read: “We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 7/26/12 1:50 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.”

At 1.50pm Google said: “Our team is continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 7/26/12 2:50 PM with more information about this problem. Thank you for your patience.”

The latest update at 2.50pm confirms the service outage is still unresolved: “We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 7/26/12 3:50 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com