Its a free service. If people expect free such a service to be up 24/7 they need to re-examine the terms of service agreement they signed virtually.
(ie: the person who wrote "I had a lot to do this morning and Google really let me down, and hard")
If this email is just for friends? There is no reason for users to panic.
If this email is for business? You get what you pay for.
Perhaps people should tell themselves "
down time" absolutely can happen frequently so that they will not depend on free services for work related communication.
Its not like we do not have domains of our own all over the place. And, domains comes with the ability to do email. If your host does not offer the capability to do email? Look elsewhere, as it should, or at least professionals can sign up for hosting with the ability to do email (
ie: contact@mydomain.com). You can even do "web based" mail with your own domain name. I just go to my domain and put /webmail right after it. I can then login and get mail from anywhere with an Internet connection.
The only thing that freaks me out is that people appear to be doing business in unsecure, free, web based environments. I only say these things because I am concerned.