Google+, Gmail, and other Google services go down worldwide

Gmail and Google+ experienced outages just before lunchtime on Friday (Pacific time). While TechCrunch has reported that services have returned to normal, we'd say nay to that, and add a number of services that seem to be misbehaving, as well.

Additionally, we're seeing effects far beyond the widely reported Gmail and Google+ services.

For example:

• A Google Voice text message arrived in our inbox 1 1/2 hours after being sent to us.
• Entering data into a Google Docs spreadsheet resulted in an error. This was repeated more than once before the sheet finally accepted the formulas.
• We continue to see sporadic Gmail burps.

While the outages themselves are painful, it does remind users just how closely tied in they are to Google.