<bleep> happens and services break. the internet is a wonderful demonstration of building a reliable network out of reliable components.
but what we have with google mail (and apps) is two scary problems o way too many users relying on a single point of failure. so it makes the nyt when it breaks because of the number of users affected, and o too many foolish people giving their private data to a data miner to whom they actually yeild rights to those data and who seems to store them for a scary long time. randy