Some time around noon ET today (some say it was earlier; Google says it was later), many Gmail users were unable to access their accounts and instead received a message reading “Temporary Error (500).” As to be expected, the world came perilously close to being engulfed in rioting, looting and other fun stuff.

Twitter immediately exploded with people trying to out-joke each other about Gmail being down. Meanwhile, Google posted updates about how it was looking into the matter and would y’all just go have lunch while we fix this.

We here at Consumerist HQ access our tipline inbox via Gmail, meaning we are just now seeing all the tips submitted about Gmail being down.

In all, the problem seemed to last about 1-2 hours, during which we should all have been reflecting about putting all your communications eggs in one basket. But now things appear to be getting back to normal, which means most folks will have moved on to more pressing matters by dinner time.

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