My Google Mail is acting all weird, and answers seem a little few and far between. But I'm not the only one with this particular problem.
For the record, I really like my Gmail. It is probably the best email innovation since ... well, the computer. It's easy to like the search functions, the way it integrates with other Google tools, and the huge storage. A friend turned me on to Gmail several years ago when it was in beta, and I never looked back. What's Yahoo?
When away from a wireless connection I can usually check my news and process my email by phone. I have a Samsung 451 phone with a slider keyboard. It's good with phone calls on those rare occasions that I actually talk on the phone. It's super with text messages, and I can do a lot of things with it. It can surf the Internet, kinda sorta. The phone doesn't have the Java fixins and the browser is prehistoric, so its Internet powers are limited.
Call it what it is. My phone is not a smartphone. At risk of going all non-politically-correct on y'all here, I'm using a tardphone.
But that's OK, too. While I'm not qualified to be a hacker (in this case, meaning programmer), I can whip up a few baling-wire tricks that can make my computers and phone do things do things you wouldn't expect. I get a lot of mileage out of my tardphone.
So the other day I needed to check my email on the phone. I hit the link out of my mobile iGoogle homepage, like always.
No joy. This error message flashed on my tiny, two-inch screen:
HTTP Error: 404 Not Found
At first blush I thought maybe my links got screwed up. Such things happen. So I tried hand-typing it in:
http://google.com/mail
http://gmail.com
No luck. Let's try the mobile site, although that's usually automatic:
http://m.google.com/mail
http://m.gmail.com
Tried again, this time using https:// as the prefix. Even went so far as to try the straight .html version of Gmail, and got the same result. That error message.
What's odd is that I can access many of my other Google services. I can get the search engine, iGoogle, Google Reader for RSS, Voice, my Gmail contacts through Voice, and my calendar. But not Gmail.
It turns out, though, it's not just me. I'm glad to hear that. I think.
A Twitter search using #gmail as the key shows several others having this problem. As far as the mainstream and tech media, not a peep through Sunday.
Several have written to the Google Support Forum, saying they lost access around Feb 8 (my connection went Tango Uniform on the 11th). Some report losing access to all Google functions (Calendar, etc.), and apparently the problem is not just with tardphones. Real smartphones seem to get this problem, particularly of the Crackberry variety.
A fella named Ethan, who identifies himself as a Google employee in the support forum, seems just as baffled as anyone else. Another person on the forum, The C Man, reported this Saturday: "Google employees are investigating the problem and have not been able to reproduce it."
Already this doesn't sound promising.
It was recommended the user clean out the phone browser cache. I did this, and it worked about as well as it did with some other folks who tried -- like, not at all.
I pulled the battery out, reset the phone, even reprogrammed it in case that worked. Again, nothing. At this point I was so desperate that if the Verizon/StraightTalk folks suggested I dance naked in a bucket of steaming chicken guts during a full moon (now that's a visual for you!) I would have tried it.
So far, this error seems awfully random. Some folks report it, others don't. Some have problems getting access to all Google services, some -- like me -- just Gmail. Several cell phone carriers were involved. The whole thing seems like a crapshoot, one of those problems where no one knows exactly what's going on, how it happened, or how to fix it.
I should feel better that it's not just me, and not just my non-Java phone.
I'd hate to think Gmail is revamping its system so that you can't access it from a tardphone like mine. It could be something that corrects itself in time, but you never know.
Knowing all that, I should feel better.
But I don't.
[As this situation progresses and/or finds resolution, don't be surprised if I report back in this space.]
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