Google E-Mail Troubles Continue

A growing number of Google Gmail e-mail users are getting angrier by the day about how the once-beloved feature is letting them down all too often.

Scores of people say they’ve been having major problems almost daily, judging from online rants about not being able to log on, messages never making it to intended recipients and Web browsers crashing whenever the user tries to open a Gmail message.

The list of problems goes on and on, and the failures have been building unabated for weeks now, or so it seems to a lot of Gmail devotees. For some specific examples, point a Web brower here, or here or here.

So what’s happening? Google says it’s any number of typical, day-to-day issues and growing pains that usually crop up with any of its features. And for every error message someone gets, there are scores more of happy Gmail users. Indeed, a lot of Gmail users say they have never been happier.

Yet, others contend the problems are so widespread it seems something much bigger is going on; what Google isn’t saying.

One theory is that the current number of Gmail users has gone way beyond what Google has the capacity to manage effectively.

Regardless of what’s going on under the hood, the Gmail problems speaks to a broader issue of a kind of malaise settling over the firm. Aside from the Gmail issues, there’s also been a recent crop of new features from Google that are shockingly average for a company known for its innovative edge.