Bad news right now for anyone who needs a constant chat stream with their co-workers: Google Talk is malfunctioning this morning, and Google, while aware of the outage, isn’t saying when it might come back online.
For those of us with virtual offices—i.e., a company whose employees either work from their homes or other locations (like a certain local news website you might know)—the Google Talk drop-off has limited us to slower forms of communication like email and text messaging.
And even for people who rely on Google Talk for cross-office banter, the disruption is causing a good deal of agita:
@dcist I hate everything right now
— Stan Carignan (@StanCarignan) July 26, 2012
@dcist yes. It’s like my world is crashing down.
— Brette Querzoli (@BretteQ) July 26, 2012
Google is holding Google Talk hostage until everyone stops calling it “Gchat.”
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) July 26, 2012
@dcist yep…never sure it goes thru…says “…did not receive your chat”
— Emilie Kyle (@emiliekyle) July 26, 2012
HEEEELLLPPPP RT @dcist Anyone having a rough go of it because of Google Talk being offline? Email tips@dcist.com.
— Nicole (@nicolebmurphy) July 26, 2012
Google first reported the outage at 6:40 a.m. It was still working to get the chat service back online more than two ours later. The company promises another update at 9:50, but for now, with a few lucky exceptions, Google Talk appears to be down for most users around the world.
Might be time to dust off those carrier pigeons.
