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Google Talk outage hits 'majority of users'

The text, voice, and video chat service serves up "error messages and/or other unexpected behavior," but some users are starting to see a recovery, Google says.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
2 min read
Google Talk goes down.
Google Talk goes down. Google

Latest update: 8:57 a.m. PT

Google Talk went down hard this morning, but is getting back up and running.

"The problem with Google Talk should be resolved," Google wrote on its App Status dashboard at 8:25 a.m. PT. "We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better."

The Google Talk service, which works across Windows, OS X, and Linux, allows users to hold text, voice, and video chats.

Earlier this morning, Google had announced on the dashboard that it was "investigating reports of an issue" with its chat service, and called it a "service disruption." Just 10 minutes later, the company updated the status to a service outage, saying that it was "affecting a majority of users."

"The affected users are able to access Google Talk, but are seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behavior," Google wrote on its dashboard.

The search giant provided updates regarding Google Talk all morning. In an update at 7:50 a.m. PT, Google said that its service has been restored to "some users" and that it expected to have a full resolution to the problem "in the near future." That full resolution came at 8:25 a.m. PT, when the company said that the issue has been resolved.

CNET has contacted Google for more information on the outage. We will update this story as we get more information.

Update 8:16 a.m. PT and 8:57 a.m. PT to include the latest details on the outage.