Laptop users on several continents suffered disruption to several Google services yesterday (December 10th) afternoon.
The search engine giant announced that its Gmail and Google Drive online storage item ceased operation, as consumers were faced with a 502 error stating the server was unable to complete the request.
Google noted the problem had arisen at 17:30 GMT and claimed it was being investigated, but the service was up and running again by 18:10 GMT – leaving users with only minor disruptions.
The company said: “For everyone who was affected, we apologise – we know you count on Google to work for you and we worked hard to restore normal operation for you.”
It also confirmed the engineering team was “fully engaged” in investigating the issue, but the company was confident the root cause of the problem had been found and corrected.
Earlier this month, Google announced its Gmail package would no longer be free-to-use for corporate customers.