Google Confirms Gmail Glitch

GoogleGOOG revealed a glitch in what may be its second-most successful service, ranking only behind search.

The company confirmed Friday that some users of Gmail, its popular email service, had their email accounts wiped out, with messages and contact information being permanently deleted.

The glitch affected about 60 users, who "lost some or all of their email received prior to Dec. 18," Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne wrote in a prepared statement. "We have extensive safeguards in place to protect email stored with Gmail and we are confident that this is a small and isolated incident."

Hohne declined to comment on what caused the problems, saying it is Google's policy not to divulge what takes place behind the scenes with its products. But readers of popular blog TechCrunch, among the first to report the incident, say the deletions may be caused by hacker attacks.

"This is not a mistake. All your emails and contacts have been deleted on purpose. This was a malicious attack and not an error," wrote in one reader, who claimed to have had his Google account deleted.

Another reader said that security issues with a version of the popular Firefox browser, which can be used to access Gmail, could have allowed the service to be hacked.

The incident is noteworthy whether it is a malicious hacker attack or a simple accident because Google is frequently celebrated for the security and reliability of its technology.