Google mail fail bodes poorly for paid Google apps

Memo to the Gmail team at the Googleplex: even "free" has a price. When Gmail suffered a widespread outage on Tuesday, around 3 p.m. EST, Twitter lit up with reports of the outage, and a number of big news sites immediately posted word of the shutdown. I personally spent two hours thrashing about, trying to retrieve a few key e-mails out of my Gmail. (I have AOL accounts, too.). If I were a paying Gmail customer, I'd be hopping mad.

I just wonder what the folks down in Los Angeles County are thinking right now. They had recently decided to switch over to a suite of Google apps. (Note to Redmond: can you say "marketing opportunity"?) With wildfires raging all over the Los Angeles area and critical decisions being made at a rapid clip, loss of e-mail would be more than an annoyance. (Granted, it's only a loss in the browser, but that's where most people use Gmail.) And it's entirely possible that L.A. did lose some or all of its Google (GOOG) e-mail capabilities.