Google Confirms Gmail Glitch

In this week's issue of The Economist magazine, Arizona State Iniversity information technology head Adrian Sannier, whose school decided to adopt the Google's email system, says, "I have a staff of about 30 people dedicated to security. Google has an army; all of their business fails if they are unable to preserve security and privacy."

Sannier says Google once showed him a picture of one of its data warehouses that burned down. "The point, however, was that no users of Google services anywhere even noticed, because Google's systems are built to be so robust that even the loss of an entire data centre does not compromise anybody's data," Sannier tells the magazine.

The latest wipeout was limited to a relatively small number of users, given that Gmail has attracted tens of millions of users since it debuted in 2004. Still, it shows that Google's vaunted technology platform is far from invincible.

The incident also occurs on the heels of some setbacks with other Google services. Google's recently launched and heavily promoted Checkout service, for example, has reported errors. The company also recently shut down its Answers service, marking the first pubic closing of a significant Google service -- even as a similar service offered by rival Yahoo!YHOO continues to thrive.