When Google goes dark
Think of it as a cautionary tale, like the one about putting all your eggs in one basket. Except, this time, it’s an electronic basket. Overall, it didn’t last long — and it might not be repeated for months, if at all.
But it sure got people’s attention quickly. Youtube, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Smart Home equipment — pretty much any service with the word “Google” in it — was down for about an hour worldwide on Monday, starting around 7:55 Atlantic Standard Time.
Here’s a sample of the electronic reaction. “My kids’ school uses Google for, like, EVERYTHING. Including COVID screening forms that are required before the kid can go to class. And I’m sure they’re emailing us telling us what to do, but ... we can’t get the emails.”
“My very stressed teen studied all weekend and can’t log in to her science exam and she is freaking out.”
A lot depends on just how far you’ve integrated Google products into your everyday life.
How about this thought? “I’m sitting here in the dark in my toddler’s room because the light is controlled by Google Home. Rethinking... a lot right now.”
And it’s not just personal users, either. It’s interesting just how broad the impacts of even a short outage can be.
A CBC afternoon radio show host pointed out similar problems: “We’re partially hooped at the CBC until it’s back. I can write scripts, cut tape and go on the radio — like the old days — but I can’t contact anyone outside the building, can’t play any music (our record library is virtual now), can’t see our chase list.”
Our world is full of amazing technology — but what’s also amazing is how much we take it absolutely for granted. If you’re from a major urban centre, you might have no idea that there are plenty of places — from the desert of the western United States to any number of places in Atlantic Canada — where cellphones don’t even get a signal. Every single year (well, maybe not this COVID-19 year), travellers who depend slavishly on GPS units in their cars end up lost and marooned on muddy woods roads in remote areas of New Brunswick, following “highways” that are anything but.
What happens if you’re away and your Google Home goes dark in the midst of a winter freeze? What happens if your business records are in the cloud, and the cloud is in the midst of a storm? What if a hospital’s stored medical records are in that space?
For years, experts have cautioned about weaknesses in the security of the electricity infrastructure, and the ability of bad actors to shut off the power for millions.
It might not have to be shutting down the power that makes for chaos.