Why Did Google Mail Fail Again This Morning?

Google mail failed for a "small subset" of users this morning (including at least 10 people I follow on Twitter and me), the second time the service has gone down in a month. Why?

The Gmail Blog, which explained the last outage as "overloaded" request routers, has no update on the current Gfail. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has not explained what's behind the outage, which has been resolved. Scott Morrison muses that

The latest service glitch, while apparently much smaller than earlier outages, will likely increase concerns about the reliability of Web-based software, which Google is promoting as an alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) packaged products.

For now, there's no way I can imagine sneaking out of Gmail for another mail server. It's not simply that I'm change-averse (although I am). It's also Gmail's perfectly simple interface; the incorporation of a popular chat program that doesn't require a separate window to operate; the ability to search past Google chats, which is crucial because many of my memorable discussions (both work-based and otherwise) occur through chats rather than emails.

But I'll admit, these outages are getting a little annoying. And my Gchat box is still "disabled" and grayed out.

As we hear more from the Google team I'll update throughout the day, and feel free to share your own experiences in the comment section.