If you rely on Google's email server, be it Gmail or Google Apps, you may have noticed a major issue with connecting via the IMAP server.

As I reported at Search Engine Land, Google's IMAP server seemed to black out, along with Google Talk features. So I went over to check how wide spread the issue. There were two thread about the IMAP issue, which quickly turned into dozens of threads, with dozens of posts in each thread. Here is a quick video showing you the thread after thread of people reporting the IMAP issue:

Yes, the threads keep coming, even though it is fixed. But as you can see, IMAP threads have over taken the Google Groups forum.

The Google Groups thread I posted in at this time has about 37 posts. About 45 minutes later, a Google represented created a thread in the announcements area, telling us that they are aware of the issue. Then at about the same time, a new thread propped up that IMAP was back. So the outage seemed to be for about 45 minutes and seemed to impact every single Google Email IMAP user. The Google rep said:

We're aware of a problem with IMAP access and chat in Gmail. Users are reporting the inability to see IMAP in their account settings and inability to access IMAP. Also, users are reporting receiving a 'We're experiencing technical difficulties that may prevent your chats from being sent' in their Chat list. Our engineers are currently working to find a solution. We appreciate your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Forum discussion at Google Groups including the announcement thread.

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