• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 14, 2009

Google services from Gmail to Google News came to a crawl Thursday. The Apps Status Dashboard points to a problem with access to Google Mail. It identified at 8:23 a.m. PDT a problem with Google Mail that affects a "small subset" of users. By 9:39, the dashboard described the problem as being resolved.

But tweets on Twitter didn't reflect that same resolution or scale of the problem. "Trending Topics" in Twitter under #googlefail suggest the issue had escalated. "We're aware some users are having trouble accessing some Google services," says a Google spokesperson. "We're looking into it, and we'll update everyone soon."

UPDATE:A Google rep claimed the problem has been solved, saying: "The issue affecting some Google services has been resolved. We're sorry for the inconvenience, and we'll share more details soon."

Later, the rep further reported a glitch in the system that redirected some Web traffic through Asia, creating a traffic jam. But all planes are back on schedule now. "As a result, about 14% of our users experienced slow services or even interruptions," writes Google SVP of Operations Urs Hoelzle in a blog post. "We've been working hard to make our services ultrafast and 'always on,' so it's especially embarrassing when a glitch like this one happens."